The Tauhei solar farm project is a joint venture between Harmony Energy New Zealand and Clarus company, First Renewables. At the time of commissioning in late 2026, it will become New Zealand’s largest solar farm. At an impressive capacity of 202 MWp*, it will stretch across 182 hectares near Te Aroha in the sunny Waikato region.
Imagine the impact: 280 gigawatt hours of renewable electricity generated every year, enough to power approximately 35,000 New Zealand homes!** This project is a significant step towards a sustainable energy future, harnessing the sun.
*Solar PV plants generate ‘direct current’ (DC) electricity, which is then converted to ‘alternating current’ electricity by on-site equipment called inverters so it can be injected into the grid. The peak amount of DC power the plant generates is measured in MWp. It is common to refer to a solar plant size by MWp (i.e. DC) capacity. Tauhei Solar Farm has been designed as a 202MWp plant, meaning under optimal conditions (such as midday on a sunny day), the solar panels could collectively generate up to 202MW of DC power before conversion losses and will reduce slightly with plant age (solar modules degrade with time).
** This is based on the total number of 500,000+ Kiwi homes and businesses using LPG or natural gas multiplied by the average number of residents in a home of 2.7 (StatsNZ).
** Data sourced from: Natural Gas Switching active ICPs in June 2024 combined with LPG numbers from GAS NZ 2023 45kg Customer Numbers customers.
**This estimate is based on an assumed average household electricity consumption of 8,000 kWh per year, as referenced in MBIE's Key Assumptions for Domestic Electricity Prices.