Kilo Power’s Brenden Marchewka, CEO and Kent Nielsen, Electrical Engineer conducted site visits at several of Lodestone Energy's solar projects located on the north island of New Zealand in May. Kilo is providing detailed design engineering for the DC portion of the first of 5 projects in Lodestone’s solar portfolio totaling approximately 190 MWdc (320 GWh per year). Kohirā (33 MWdc) solar farm was the first project online in October 2023, followed shortly after by the Rangitaiki (32 MWdc) solar farm which just came online in April 2024 and soon to follow is the third project Te Herenga o Te Rā (42 MWdc) solar farm which is currently in the middle of construction. Two additional projects, in various phases of engineering, are also set to come online in the near future. During their downtime, Kent and Brenden were able to fit in a team-building bike ride through the beautiful countryside of the Thames-Coromandel District and the Ohinemuri River Valley.
During the site visit at Te Herenga o Te Rā, Kent had a key role in a "Golden Table" inspection which included a single combiner box mockup (Weidmuller), mechanical installation of the Tracker (Trina Vanguard 2P), installation of the Catenary System (Snake Tray) and the electrical installation of string cables and DC home runs.
Kilo is also working closely with its partners, Jacobs and Infratec to deliver the projects successfully to help Lodestone achieve their goal of powering Aotearoa (New Zealand) from solar energy and empowering the local families and businesses where they operate.
About Lodestone Energy
Our solar farms are redefining what green energy generation means. In minimizing our environmental footprint, we’re committing to a sustainable future.
Lodestone’s team of experts have deep technical and industry knowledge, using this to pick apart every aspect of grid-scale solar to utilize the best approach for Aotearoa. Our first five solar farms are low impact construction projects. By keeping this as a core value in our construction planning, we use as little steel, concrete, water, and heavy machinery as possible during the build.
Our solar farms are located on flat land surrounded by native planting, reducing visual impact, and boosting native biodiversity. The farms have no negative impact on the landscape or land, a win-win for the environment and renewable energy generation.
Iwi and local people from the community help with the construction of these farms.
