The northwest Auckland town of Helensville could become home to a 100-hectare solar farm.
Area outlined for the proposed solar farm in Helensville, Auckland. Photo: Supplied
The development by New Zealand-owned, UK-operated company HES Aoteroa has already met fierce opposition from a group of locals, who want it relocated, redesigned or downsized.
It has just applied for resource consent to install 82,000 glass panels at a site on Rogan Avenue, to generate enough renewable electricity to power 14,000 Auckland homes.
The company's application to Auckland Council sets out numerous benefits - pledging to help provide a secure electricity supply, and more stable electricity prices.
But Peter Smith-West fears it will come at an irreparable cost to the "five kilometres of nothing but rural views and the river" that his property looks over.
"We're in a heritage area - you're not allowed to do anything to disrupt the visual aspect of that heritage area. Yet they want to put in this monstrosity which is as big as the township of Helensville," he said.
The view from Peter Smith-West's Helensville property, which he worries will be ruined if a planned solar farm plant goes up. Photo: Supplied / Peter Smith-West
The resource consent application described the visual effects as minor for most nearby residents, explaining that the panels are designed to reflect just 2 percent of the light that hits them, with less glare than crops, grass or water.
Riparian planting would be used to gradually screen the solar panels from the view of elevated nearby properties, and to offset any impacts on the waterways.
The project would require only "minimal" earthworks and there would be gaps left between each rows of panels, for crops or sheep grazing, it said.
The company said it had selected the best of the sites it assessed across New Zealand, looking at solar hours, topography and proximity to electricity demand and infrastructure.
Marco Scuderi, who has lived on the same street as the proposed solar farm for 12 years, believed it should be a lot smaller and shrouded within much more native planting - but ideally, he wanted HES Aotearoa to consider moving elsewhere.
"The site chosen is appalling. It's just ridiculous that you have no concern about the people whose lives you're going to affect. The address is a residential street - it's incredible. They could have moved it two kilometres south and nobody would see it," he said.
The view from Peter Smith-West's Helensville property, which he worries will be ruined if a planned solar farm plant goes up. Photo: Supplied / Peter Smith-West
HES Aotearoa have applied for resource consent for 35 years, and say the construction process would take nine months.
The company dropped letters to 19 nearby properties at the end of December explaining its intentions, and submitted to the council that the consent should be limited notified, meaning just those directly around it would be able to give feedback.
However, seven times that number have already joined a Facebook page discussing the plan.
Most are in opposition, and want it to be publicly notified, including Marco Scuderi.
"Very few people will have a say and given the site is like an amphitheatre and hundreds of houses will look down into it - it's a bit rich."
That is not the opinion of Joe Holden, who lives a short distance down the valley.
He said in a climate emergency and after rolling power outages last year, he would much rather deal with something that was not "pretty" than the insanity of importing coal, or running hydroschemes that take a toll on river ecology.
Area outlined for the proposed solar farm in Helensville, Auckland. Photo: Supplied
Holden said energy consumption was going up, as electric cars and scooters become the norm.
"If you embrace all of those things then you have no choice but to embrace solar and windfarms. Then the usual thing comes along and nobody wants it in their backyard," he said.
"I think that's a pretty good place for a solar farm. I guess some people might not like it in their view but it has to go somewhere. On the outskirts of the city is not the end of the world."
Auckland Council said the resource consent application was in the "very early stages" of being assessed.
In the meantime, locals in opposition plan to drop hundreds of flyers around town alerting other residents to the planned solar farm.
HES Aotearoa was not available to comment.
