Waipara residents have taken to social media to express their alarm with the prospect a solar farm could be established on a 100-hectare site alongside State Highway 7, to the north west of the township.
The call has gone out on social media to let the Hurunui District Council’s planning department know what they think of any such proposal.
The council has not received a resource consent application for a solar farm.
Council chief strategy and community officer Judith Batchelor says there had been ‘‘discussions quite some time ago’’.
But says it is ‘‘speculation’’ about what might be applied for on the site.
Land clearance works appear to have already started on land on the Waipara flat, alongside State Highway 7, with large trees being felled.
One longtime resident and a pioneer of the now burgeoning wine industry in the Waipara Valley is distraught.
John McCaskey says the land has never been disturbed since the ‘‘days of the moa’’.
He is calling on the area to be listed as a Significant Natural Area to preserve it as virgin ground.
McCaskey says the intrusion of foreign investors wanting to establish the solar farm is ‘‘making the locals' blood boil’’.
‘‘Winegrowers in particular will have some serious concerns,’’ he says.
‘‘It is obvious that the promoters haven’t studied the climate history of the area, let alone its vulnerability to drought and fire.’’
A resident said on social media she has heard the developers are an Auckland-based company, which got under way with its first large scale solar development in 2021 — Pukenui Solar Farm.
There were few details available, she said on the local Facebook page, ‘‘but as well as the work on SH7 it may include expansion at the Waipara substation to enable grid connectivity’’.
Others say they will be ‘‘squished’’ in between a wind farm - being built on Mt Cass to the east of Waipara - and a solar farm, not to mention the regional landfill at Kate Valley, to the east of the township.
The glare from the solar panels would be a hindrance for motorists on State Highway 7, and the farm would be unsightly, they said.
The proposal follows on closely from a proposal near Sefton, north east of Rangiora, by an Australian company, Energy Bay Ltd. It is proposing a solar farm on an 80 hectare site on the corner of Beatties and Upper Sefton Roads at Ashley.
Waimakariri District Council planning manager Wendy Harris said in May this year, there was no active consent application lodged with the council.
A resource consent was required for a solar farm and none had been granted.
