DATE OF INVESTMENT 7 October 2022 and 21 March 2024
LOCATION Bay of Plenty, Waikato & across New Zealand
SECTOR Renewable Energy
STAGE/TYPE OF INVESTMENT Project
IMPACT FOCUS Climate Change
STATUS  Active

Profile

Lodestone Energy Ltd is leading the development of New Zealand’s largest ever solar project. This transformative project will see utility-solar farms constructed in five locations across Northland, the Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty. More than half a million solar panels will be placed over 500 hectares of land.

Phase 1 will see utility-solar farms constructed in five locations across Northland, the Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty. More than half a million solar panels will be placed over 500 hectares of land.

Phase 2 is spread across seven new sites which, upon completion, are estimated to produce enough electricity to power roughly 70,000 homes. Phase 2 represents significantly more solar generation than phase 1.

Combined, the farms will act as one giant power station, feeding electricity into local networks and complementing New Zealand’s hydro, geothermal and wind resources.

In addition to producing electricity, the farms will continue to support agriculture and horticulture production. The panels will be high enough, and spaced sufficiently, to allow farming and cropping to continue underneath.

 

Impact

Lodestone is pioneering utility-scale solar agrivoltaics in New Zealand (using the land concurrently for both farming and solar power generation). Utility-scale solar PV ranks as the #8 solution (of 80) to climate change in terms of total atmospheric CO2e reduction, in Paul Hawken’s book “Drawdown”. See Project Drawdown’s overview on Utility-Scale Solar for more information.

Phase 1 and 2 together will represent about 2% of the total electricity market, and Phase 1, 2, and 3 could be up to 4% of total market share (depending on demand growth from EVs and industrial electrification) by 2030. Lodestone represents impact at scale and investment in the Series B and C capital raises directly support the development of Clean Energy Generation through Low- and Zero-Carbon Alternatives.

For New Zealand to achieve our carbon reduction targets, we must decarbonise and electrify our economy, and investment into new renewable generation is critical to this.

The initial five sites (in phase 1) are expected to generate 320,000,000 kWh per year while the seven phase 2 sites are expected to generate 486,000,000 kWh per year. See our impact reports here for progress updates.

Transaction Summary

So far, Purpose Capital has led a $17.44m syndicated investment into Lodestone Energy, over two investment rounds. The syndicate comprises of the Purpose Capital Impact Fund who invested $3.5m and $13.94m in co-investment commitments.