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The company planning to develop a large-scale solar energy farm near Wellsford has lodged an application under the government’s pending fast-track consent legislation.
If greenlighted for fast-track approval, Energy Farms’ project would bypass the usual notification process, under which councils invite submissions from affected and interested parties and hold a public hearing.
The news has stunned the owners of adjoining properties, who strongly oppose the solar farm and worry they may not have the opportunity to air their concerns.
Late last year, Energy Farms chief executive Todd Wilson said the company planned to apply for resource consent from Auckland Council, and intended for the process to be fully notified (MM, Nov 20).
This month, however, after a council spokesperson confirmed it had still not received a consent application, Wilson told the paper that the company had opted instead for the Fast Track Approvals Bill route, on the advice of its planners.
“The new bill provides more certainty around assessment completion timeframes, stating that if a decision has not been made within 12 months, the application will automatically be granted,” Wilson said.
The company lodged its submission before a May 3 closing date for projects to be included in the legislation, and was now awaiting the outcome, he said.
Energy Farms wants to build a 150,000-panel, 76MW solar farm on a 260 hectare site south-west of the town. Wilson said all the land has been contracted.
Brett and Kim Montefiore have lived for 13 years on a 10 hectare property on Port Albert Road. Over much of that time they have been landscaping to develop a wedding venue as a source of income for their approaching retirement. The sweeping rural backdrop is crucial to the venture, but now they face the prospect of that feature landscape being covered by thousands of solar panels, he said.
Montefiore sent Energy Farms a list of “mitigation” measures that he would require if its proposal were to go ahead – beginning with a 500 metre-wide buffer along the entire joint boundary, with native evergreen trees planted along the far edge of the strip.
He said, however, that no amount of planting would obscure the sight of solar panels and associated infrastructure.
“And it’s not just us – it’s everybody else around here who is affected. And you won’t be able to drive in or out of Wellsford without seeing it.”
Montefiore, who speaks on behalf of more than 60 households in the surrounding area, stressed that he supports renewable energy – he has solar panels on the roof of his house – but does not think the earmarked land is suitable. He recently visited a solar farm in Kaitaia which was on flat land and virtually invisible to passersby. (Lodestone Energy’s 61,000-panel, 33MW solar farm in Kaitaia, currently the largest in NZ, began generating power last November.)
Wilson said Energy Farms had and would continue to actively engage with all affected parties.
“We are currently developing mitigation plans to address visual amenity concerns.”
When Montefiore made a presentation to the Rodney Local Board in February, he detailed residents’ concerns, including noise, impact on waterways and endemic species, glare risk to helicopter pilots, restraints on Wellsford’s future growth and rural lifestyle activities, and property devaluation.
He noted that a recent land sale nearby threatened to fall through when the prospective buyer lopped 20 percent off the earlier-offered price, after learning about the potential solar farm. In the end, the elderly vendor had little choice but to sell at a significant discount.
“Most people here don’t want to sell. Like us, they love it here,” Montefiore said. “But they also don’t want to sit on their front deck and look out at a solar farm.”
Kim Montefiore added that the planned development would also have an emotional impact.
“It’s a beautiful balance here, but if that whole hillside is panelled it’s going to be horrible to look out of my window or go outside and see that every day.”
Montefiore said he knew of at least a dozen other affected landowners who, like him, had written to Energy Farms to voice their concerns and opposition, and those were just the ones who had copied him in on the correspondence.
He said the company’s decision to apply for the fast-track route was perplexing.
“It fired me up all over again,” he said.
Government silence on fast-track list
The government is not releasing the names of projects that have been lodged with the Ministry for the Environment for possible inclusion in the Fast Track Approvals Bill, under which “projects of national and regional significance” would go through an accelerated consent process.
A ministry spokesperson said it could not say when, or even if, the list of projects would be released.
The bill is at the select committee stage, but over a month-long period that ended on May 3, a range of private and public sector applicants were invited to submit projects.
A six-person advisory group is now reviewing the applications, before recommending which should be included in the pending legislation, in one of two schedules.
Should the bill become law, listed projects would proceed down one of two expedited pathways. An expert panel would set conditions and seek comment from applicants and affected parties, before being referred to three ministers – Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Transport Minister Simeon Brown – who would have the final decision.
