The latest Overseas Investment Office data reveals the North Canterbury district of Scargill may be next in line for large-scale solar farm conversion.
In August consent was granted for over 1500 hectares of farm land to be leased by Australian-owned NZ Clean Energy (NZCE) Investments to establish solar panels and a battery installation.
While about 500ha of this covers known solar farm projects in Masterton, Dannevirke and Darfield and a battery installation at Glenbrook, the remaining 900-950ha encompasses five freehold farming properties near the tiny village of Waikari on State Highway 7.
The leasehold rights were granted under the “benefit to New Zealand” test for projects of national significance that meet government policy, in this case sustainable energy generation
Specifically, the rights include farm properties on Scargill Valley road, Waikari Valley Road, Gates Road and Megowan’s Road, totaling 952ha. The largest of the properties is a 340ha property on Scargill Valley road.
The North Canterbury project has been a low-profile play by NZCE, which registered a company, Scargill Solar and Energy Storage Ltd, in January 2025 with the NZ Companies Office.
There is also no reference to the Scargill project on NZCE’s website, with only Masterton, Darfield and Dannevirke listed.
At about 950ha, the Scargill project footprint represents almost 10% of the 10,000ha identified for solar projects in progress.
George Hughes, NZCE’s chief operating officer, said the project’s low profile to date was because it is further down the company’s list of priorities.
“We are continually assessing projects in our portfolio. The first thing we would do if proceeding is talk to the neighbours. We do have rights to it, but it is still years away.”
The proximity to the national grid makes the Waikari site particularly suitable for such a project, which the OIO report notes is to be developed on sensitive land, currently used for beef, sheep and dairy farming.
Hughes said while the grant is for almost 1000ha, this would not be the area in solar panels.
He said the area that would go into panels could be “less than half” the area granted. It may also include a battery installation.
This would still make the project the company’s largest, with the Masterton, Darfield and Dannevirke projects averaging 150ha each.
Nationally the pipeline for large-scale solar installations remains significant, with estimates of about 10,000ha of land consented for conversion, under construction or going through fast-track consenting.
The MPI estimates a further 10,000-20,000ha of land could be destined for solar installations in future.
Bex Green, Federated Farmers North Canterbury president, said she felt the local community would be shocked and horrified to learn such a large amount of productive farmland was going to be covered in solar panels.
“I could understand small-scale solar going in, but 1000ha, or even 500ha, is a huge amount of land to be lost from productive sheep and beef farming.”
She said large-scale solar farms is quickly becoming the “new carbon forestry”.
“This is a real emerging issue and I think we are only going to hear more about the scale of these conversions as time goes by. It is happening all over the country now,”
A Beef + Lamb NZ spokesperson said the body did not have a position on solar installations’ impact on farmland at this point.
NZCE’s investments are on behalf of the Australian Renewables Income Fund (ARIF), itself partly backed by the Australian government to the tune of AU$175 million.
The ARIF manages about AU$2 billion in wind, hydro, solar and battery assets and the investments represent its first foray into NZ’s sustainable energy market.
Hughes confirmed none of the NZCE projects have been earmarked for the government’s fast-track process, having commenced prior to that process being established.
Almost 4000 hectares of New Zealand farmland have been leased or sold to foreign-owned solar companies over the past four years without first being offered to New Zealand interests, under exemptions granted by the Overseas Investment Office.
OIO records reveal multiple solar projects over the past four years have included largely leasehold deals with the companies, extending from the Far North to Otago. The total area acquired is 3917ha.
Normally, under overseas investment regulations when overseas interests wish to acquire farmland that is classed as sensitive under the Overseas Investment Act, it must be offered for acquisition on the open market to New Zealanders first.
The prescriptive rules require at least 30 working days both online and in print.
The scale of the exempted projects leased to overseas interests varies between a 53ha project near Auckland, to a 460ha project this year in Taranaki, leased to Stratford Solar, a joint project between Contact and Lightsource, a global solar energy developer. The approval of 1536ha to NZ Clean Energy Ltd does not appear in the latest OIO exemption updates (see accompanying article).
Acquisition of land for solar projects was particularly intense in 2023 when 1750ha was obtained for leasing.
Solar projects dominate the OIO’s exemptions list, and the office is required to state the reasons for exempting companies from seeking local interest.
Typically, on most of the exemptions the office states that publicising the property increases risks around alerting the foreign company’s competitors to the location of the project, increasing likelihood of those competitors acquiring it.
In the case of leasehold land it usually also notes the use is temporary, some of it will also still be used for grazing, and it is not a permanent loss of New Zealanders’ opportunity to buy the land given the leasehold arrangement.
Farmland leases for solar projects typically run for a lengthy 35 years.
The creep of unadvertised, exempted solar leases across farmland has rung alarm bells with Federated Farmers.
Feds energy spokesperson Greg Anderson said the stealthy nature of the solar conversions will be of huge concern to a lot of farmers and Federated Farmers is watching closely.
“There are a lot of similarities with the carbon farming situation, where there could be a lot of unintended consequences further down the line. When there’s no public consultation, you don’t know these solar farms are going in until they’re already up – but by then it’s too late.”
He called for greater transparency around the projects to ensure communities are aware of what is going on, and to give greater opportunity for scrutiny.
“Land Information NZ’s own guidance says a solar farm may stop being a farm once it’s built. That means a later sale to an overseas buyer may not face the farmland rules that a normal farm sale would.”
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