Meridian Energy has won resource consent to build a 120 megawatt solar farm at Bunnythorpe near Palmerston North, a project that will deploy roughly 250,000 panels across 280 hectares and form the centrepiece of a new energy park sitting alongside an already consented grid-scale battery.
The state-owned generator said the Bunnythorpe Energy Park, once built, would generate up to 225 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power around 30,000 average homes. That output would make it one of the largest single solar installations ever consented in New Zealand, dwarfing the small commercial-scale farms that have come online to date.
The consent decision was reported by RNZ on Friday and clears the regulatory pathway for what would be a step change in the scale of utility solar in this country. The site spans land between Ashhurst Road and Stoney Creek Road in the Manawatū, adjacent to Transpower’s Bunnythorpe substation, a deliberate choice that allows the solar output and battery system to feed directly into the national grid backbone without the cost and delay of building new transmission infrastructure.
Meridian’s general manager of development, Guy Waipara, told RNZ that “solar energy is playing an increasingly important role in New Zealand’s electricity generation, and we’re excited to bring this to Manawatū.” The company said the project would create more than 100 construction jobs locally and inject up to $50 million of spending into the Manawatū economy across the build phase.
Bunnythorpe is part of a wider $3 billion programme Meridian has signalled to 2030, ramping up new renewable generation to meet rising demand and fill the gap left by the steady retreat of thermal generation. The company is also weighing final investment decisions on its Mt Munro wind farm in northern Wairarapa, expected in late 2026, and the Te Rere Hau wind farm rebuild near Palmerston North, expected in early 2027.
The board still has to give Bunnythorpe the final green light, with that decision pencilled in for the fourth quarter of 2027. If approved, construction would follow, suggesting first power could flow toward the latter end of the decade. The staggered timing reflects how generators are now pre-positioning consented assets so that they can act quickly when wholesale electricity prices, equipment costs, and grid connection slots line up.
The announcement lands in a fortnight that has been brutal for New Zealand energy users. Petrol prices jumped 13 percent and diesel rocketed 37 percent in April, the worst fuel shock the country has ever recorded, after the war between Israel and Iran pushed crude through the roof. Air New Zealand has warned of a full-year loss of up to $390 million as jet fuel costs triple. Manufacturing activity has been hit. The Chatham Islands have lifted electricity prices 32 percent. Gas reserves are at a record low. Against that backdrop, every megawatt of domestically generated, fuel-free renewable electricity is increasingly load-bearing for both energy security and the cost of living.
Solar’s role in the New Zealand mix is rising fast. The 120 megawatt Bunnythorpe project alone is on a scale that would, until very recently, have looked exotic. Earlier this month, Auckland-based developer Lightyears commissioned an 8 hectare solar farm on Tram Road at Swannanoa near Rangiora. By comparison, Bunnythorpe is 35 times the area and will hold 30 times the panel count. The other big-four generators, Genesis, Mercury and Contact, all have solar projects under development or already operating, and dedicated solar players such as Lodestone are running commercial-scale farms in Northland and Hawke’s Bay. The government has flagged a review of solar panel installation rules, which RNZ reports it has described as a “red tape nightmare”, although that review is primarily aimed at rooftop and small-scale installations rather than utility projects of the Bunnythorpe class.
The other point worth noting about Bunnythorpe is the pairing with grid-scale battery storage on the same site. Solar’s weakness as a baseload technology has always been the diurnal cycle, in particular the evening peak that hits New Zealand homes around 5pm to 8pm just as the sun fades. Co-located batteries allow operators to time-shift afternoon solar output into the peak, smoothing both the price signal and the dispatch profile. Meridian has been steadily building battery capacity, with the Ruakākā battery in Northland already commissioned, and the company has indicated that batteries will be a routine companion to its future solar and wind developments.
For Manawatū the construction jobs and local spending will be welcome news in a region that has been carrying the load on national infrastructure for decades, hosting Transpower’s HVDC inter-island terminus, the Tararua wind farms, and a long history of energy investment. Bunnythorpe village, north of Palmerston North and known to most New Zealanders for the historic Glaxo Laboratories factory site, sits at the heart of one of New Zealand’s most productive farming districts and will now also become host to a piece of the country’s renewable future.
Coverage of the consent decision is available from RNZ and a snapshot of the wider energy backdrop, including the recent fuel shock, is captured in RNZ’s fuel price wrap.
What do you think of the rapid build out of utility-scale solar in New Zealand and the pairing with grid batteries? Are projects like Bunnythorpe enough to shield households from the kind of energy shocks we have seen in recent weeks? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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