John MacDonald: The Govt needs some skin in the solar game

How would you feel if the Government came out and said solar energy is the future and it was going to throw everything at it?  

Because that’s something I think it needs to seriously consider doing.  

For me, there would only be one fly in the ointment – I’ll get to that. But it’s not enough for me to say that the Government shouldn’t be ploughing money into solar energy.  

Lodestone Energy is in the news today talking about its latest solar farm, which will cover 42-hectares in the Clandeboye area in South Canterbury. There’s also the big solar farm being built near Christchurch Airport, among others in the South Island. Which is brilliant.   

But I think our reliance on private operators to get these things up and running is very risky. Which is why I think the Government should be getting some skin in the game, as well.  

Now before you start thinking, “what about SolarZero?”, that’s different to what I’m talking about. That wasn’t about solar farms, that was a joint venture between the Government and a private outfit which supplied solar panel kits to homeowners.  

But it does show the risk of relying on private outfits because SolarZero went into liquidation and that was it.  

I’m not saying that Lodestone Energy, which is behind the solar farm at Clandeboye, is a risky bet. I only want the best for them.  

But as anyone in business will tell you, nothing is guaranteed. That’s why we don’t have a solely private health system. Why we don’t have a solely private education system.  

If anything, state ownership is —at the very least— a backstop.  

And that’s why I think the state needs to get more involved in solar power generation.  

The potential fly in the ointment is use of land that might otherwise be used for things like growing food, but I can live with that.  

The Government might point to the Christchurch Airport solar farm and say that the Crown has a 25% share in the airport, so it's already investing in solar generation, but that would be dancing on the head of a pin. I’m talking here about the Government allocating money to the construction and operation of state-owned solar farms.   

But how would you feel about that? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Question, how would you feel? How would you feel if
the government came out and said solar energy is the
future and we're going to throw everything at it. Solar
energy is the future, We're going to throw money at it,
because that's something that I think it needs to seriously
consider doing. For me, there would only be one fly
in the ointment. I'll get to that, but it's still

(00:34):
not enough for me to say that the government shouldn't
be plowing money into solar energy. I'm talking about generation here.
You would have heard Mike talking this morning to the
outfit behind another big sol of farm in the clandy
Boy area in South Canterbury. It's going to cover forty
two hectares. Works expected to begin in the next few weeks.

(00:55):
Not the only one, of course, there's the one at
Lowiston in Canterbury. That one is currently the biggest solar
farm in New Zealand. There's also the big sol of
farm being built near crime at Board, all of which
are brilliant. But I think our reliance on private operators
to get these things up and running, I reckon it's

(01:15):
very risky, which is why I think the government should
be getting some skin in the game as well. Now,
before you start, before you start yelling at me, what
about Solar zero? A what about soular zero that went
really well government money and their government involvement and that, well,
that's completely different to what I'm talking about. You see,
soul of zero wasn't about solar farms. That was a

(01:36):
joint venture between the government and a private outfit which
supplied solar panel kits to homeowners. So it's different. But
I tell you what it does show the risk of
relying on private outfits because Solar zero went into liquidation
and that was it. Now I'm not saying in any

(01:56):
way that Loadstone Energy, which is behind the solar farm
at Clandy Boy, I'm not saying in any way that
that's a risky bet. And I only want the best them.
I want them to be successful. I see they're ninety
eight percent New Zealand owned, so that's a that's a
good thing. But as anyone in business will tell you,

(02:17):
nothing is guaranteed nothing. That's why we don't have a
solely private health system, That's why we don't have a
solely private education system. If anything, ownership is at the
very least a backstop, and that is why I think
the state needs to get more involved in solar powered generation.
That's why I think we should have some government owned

(02:37):
solar farms. So what's to fly in the ointment that
I mentioned earlier, Well, it's something that we touched on
and yesterday's discussion about the housing intensification, and that's the
use of land that might otherwise be used for things
like growing food. But I actually don't have a problem
with the prospect of farmland being converted into solar farms.
But I don't want us to rely solely on private

(02:59):
companies because take Loadstone Energy for example, they're saying that
their first five soul of farms will generate enough power
for fifty thousand households, and this one in South Canterbury
that's the fifth one. So there's no argument that solar
is a way to go, and for me, there's no
argument that the government needs to get involved. You might

(03:20):
feel differently now. The government might point to the christchi
Atch Airport's solar farm massive project and it might say, well,
the Crown's got a twenty five percent share in christi
at Ch Airport so actually we are investing in solar generation,
but I reckon that would be nothing more than dancing
on the head of a pin. What I'm talking about
here is the government allocating money to the construction and

(03:40):
operation of state owned solar farms. Gary Holden, he's the
Loadstone Energy boss. He doesn't need any convincing on that front.
I'm going to play you a bit of what he
had to say to Mike earlier this morning. He thinks
there's room for the likes of Genesis Energy to get
involved in this too, because I've been talking in the
past week about doing some sola at Huntley. Here's what
Gary Holden had to say about.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
That there ultimately is a solar farm in every community.
Then there will be energy in the afternoon when the
sun is shining that you could shift into the evening.
And so they're just getting a bit ahead of the
curve and it's quite quite a good idea and it
enables quite a lot of solar to be built.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Interesting thing is that this company sells the power directly
to customers. So it's another Gen Taylor. Maybe it's a
green gent tailor, but it's another Gen Taylor. But it's
still That's what it comes down to for me. It
is still a private company, and we can't just rely
on private companies to generate our solar energy, which is
why I think the government should be investing in publicly

(04:41):
owned solar farms.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
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