Solar uptake in the far north accelerating

There is some interesting data coming out of Northland on solar uptake, with both Top Energy and Northpower registering solid growth in solar connections over the past two years.

 

Top, which as the name indicates serves the very top of the North Island, now has 1355 customer connections producing more than 7 megawatt of solar generation on its network.

 

That equates to 1 in 35 connections, the highest penetration rate in the country.

 

On top of this connection agreements have been signed with three solar farm developers for a total of 63 megawatt of generation in the Kaitaia and Pukenui areas.


Northpower is seeing the same trend. It now has over 1500 residential solar connections (1 in 38 customers) and nearly 9 megawatt of solar on the network.

 

It’s also working with several parties to connect large scale solar and wind generation to the network, helping to increase Northland’s energy security and self-sufficiency.


It’s great to see lines companies in the sunny north working hard to support the growth in clean energy.