An overview of the plans by Far North Solar Farm to install solar panels on Tom Kidner's farm near Waipara, North Canterbury. Photo: Supplied / Far North Solar Farm
A North Canterbury farmer says installing 200 hectares of solar panels on his farm would be a win-win situation.
Renewable energy asset developer Far North Solar Farm is looking to install the 135-megawatt-peak solar project on Tom Kidner's sheep, beef and arable farm near Waipara.
The proposed solar farm would generate enough clean electricity to power up to 30,000 homes.
Kidner said it should not disrupt his farming operation too much.
"It's a long-term lease, which you can still farm and basically do your whole operation underneath, maybe 80 percent of the stock you were running, and it just gives us security," he said.
"The farm up in North Canterbury is very dry and you know, we might even end up growing more grass underneath and we can still do our operation - it seems a bit of a win-win diversity-wise as well powering 29,000 homes and taking 13,500 cars off the road, equivalent."
Preliminary results from a Massey University study found combining solar panels with a pastoral sheep farming system could have both positive and negative impacts on pasture growth.
“Pasture growth was reduced by 84 percent directly under the panels, but increased by 38 per cent in the larger areas between panels. Pasture growth in both cases was compared to pasture growth in areas away from the panels."
Kidner said while it was even drier around Waipara wine country, pastures should still benefit from the shade.
Diversifying farm incomes would help too, he said.
"The Massey research, well it's obviously a bit wetter environment up there, whereas in North Canterbury it is just very, very dry. And with El Niño coming, we're just hoping to shore up our business as well as we can really and keep the farm and the family going forward.
"It just can be a bit tough at the moment, and in the past as well, so we're just hoping that it might even promote grass growth just by getting rid of those hot, hot days baking down on the grass all day.
"Obviously, there will be panels in the way but we could still get a drill up in between them."
The developer is contacting the immediate neighbours and will hold an open day on the site on 28 September.
It expects it could be up and running in two years, including the consenting process.