Lodestone Energy has commenced construction of its second solar farm in New Zealand.

The 32MW farm in Edgecumbe will generate enough electricity to supply more than 6000 typical New Zealand small businesses, farms, homes and apartments every year.

The site will utilise about 60,000 Trina PV modules with tracking technology and is the second of five sites in the company's first phase of growth.

Lodestone Energy managing director Gary Holden says after breaking ground on Lodestone's Kaitaia site in December, it's pleasing to be moving on to Edgecumbe so quickly.

'Today we've reached financial close on our Edgecumbe site. We've got our senior debt facility in place with Westpac, and have engaged Infratec New Zealand to construct the farm," says Gary.

'We're building grid-scale solar for Aotearoa New Zealand now and have already pre-sold the electricity we'll generate through long term arrangements.

'We're underway in Kaitaia and expect to be generating electricity on in the second half of this year. In early 2024, we'll also be generating electricity at Edgecumbe, and we have a further three sites already confirmed and underway."

Gary says they chose the Edgecumbe location because of its high sunshine hours, solid transmission interconnection and proximity to town.

'We are excited to be bringing solar power to the people and businesses in this amazing part of the Bay of Plenty,” says Gary.

In addition to the Edgecumbe and Kaitaia farms, Lodestone has solar farms in Waiotahe, Whitianga and Dargaville already planned.

Each solar generation plant is designed to allow stock grazing and horticulture to continue around and underneath the solar arrays, which are spaced apart to allow farm machinery to operate between them.

Lodestone says this means they are maximising New Zealand's renewable energy output in the most sustainable way.

The company is now developing the second phase of its capital plan, with a number of new sites under advanced stages of investigation.