8 | Living Energy Wood fuel a winner Living Energy has supplied and installed 30 wood boilers throughout New Zealand. T TRussell Fredric Solar energy set to power the country REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT T TSue Russell “Our vision is to be involved in getting a solar project.... in every town in the country.” In 2003, Rob Mallinson established Living Energy, intent on enabling the delivery of cost- effective, environmentally sustainable wood-derived energy for industrial and commercial heat users. Living Energy has supplied and installed 30 wood boilers throughout New Zealand and Australia, meeting the heat requirements of sawmills, hospitals, universities, swimming pools, and schools. Since the company was formed, it has saved these clients hundreds of thousands of dollars on their energy costs. The boilers combust forestry slash or sawmill by-products like sawdust and shavings. “We are proud to have introduced the first modern ‘packaged’ wood boilers at schools, hospitals and swimming pools. But there are now around 20 similar boiler types available in New Zealand, so we have adapted to maintain our unique positioning,” says Rob. So, in more recent developments Living Energy has partnered up with European suppliers to provide a specialist wood-fuel storage and recovery system to wood boiler clients. This is called the Toploader, and 19 such systems have now been supplied across both countries. An exciting solar farm development in Whitianga is part of a much bigger picture that is tipped to transform the electricity market in New Zealand. For the past two years, Lodestone Energy has been rolling out utility-scale solar farms in the North Island, with its first two projects already generating enough clean energy to power over 15,000 homes. Managing director, Gary Holden says the Whitianga solar farm, Pāmu Rā ki Whitianga, isexpected to be operational by the end of this year. It will be Lodestone’s fourth project within the company’s first five-site plan. “Our vision is to be involved in getting a solar project, like the one we’re building, in every town in the country, so we are methodically starting where there’s lots of sunshine and lots of interconnection capacity with the grid.” In addition to the high sunshine hours in the area, Pāmu Rā ki Whitianga’s proximity to local electricity demand and a nearby distribution network connection influenced the decision for its siting. Previously a dairy farm, the low-lying land adjacent to the Whangamaroro River suffered from surface flooding and boggy conditions. Lodestone’s agrivoltaic solar design sets panels widely apart and two metres above the ground, which allows the land to be farmed symbiotically, providing space both for machinery, and for sheep to graze comfortably around the panels. The project has been undertaken in liaison with community stakeholders and the local iwi, Ngāti Hei ki Wharekaho. Once operational, Pāmu Rā ki Whitianga will have a capacity of 33 megawatts at peak, and be capable of powering the equivalent of 6800 homes. Lodestone Energy plans to build up to three to four solar farms a year which, because of the increased supply in the national electricity “This means our clients can still benefit from our expertise in the wood-energy sector, whilst our ex-competiors, the wood boiler suppliers, use us to supply their clients with a state-of-the-art wood fuel storage and recovery system. It’s a win-win-win.” The company is based in St Heliers, Auckland and uses a well-established team of subcontractors to install the Toploaders. Rob says the journey of the company has been one of achieving milestones. He is particularly pleased with how various sectors have taken to the concept of using wood, to power their heat needs. “Through the use of our wood boilers our clients have avoided thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions. What few appreciate is that wood is by far the lowest-cost renewable energy source for industrial heat users, and we have plenty of it, so it best meets the elusive energy ‘trifecta’ of security, affordability and reliability,” Rob says. The Toploader system enables trucks to easily deliver wood fuel to a wood boiler site. It allows much greater volumes to be stored, and automatically recovers the wood, so it also means the site doesn’t need a front-end loader. “We have installed these at various sites including at two large dairy factories, which have the largest wood boilers in New Zealand. grid, would result in downward pressure on electricity prices, Gary says. “Eventually, if we do our job right with renewables, it will squeeze gas and carbon out of the electricity market completely, and then electricity prices will come down for the whole country.” Lodestone is capitalised by a group of about 25 professional and institutional investors “that believe in the power of this business model” in addition to institutional investors, with more than $650 million raised to date. When the Whitianga project is completed, Lodestone’s total investment in solar farms will be an estimated $250 million, with all the electricity generated pre-sold to commercial customers. “We are sold out for the next 10 to 20 years on those farms and we are now in discussions with customers for our next phase of farms,” Gary says. In 2023, Lodestone announced an agreement to supply The Warehouse Group’s 260 stores, across New Zealand, through its Virtual Rooftop Solar solution, based on an innovative form of energy contracting. More recently, Inghams NZ was announced as another foundational customer. The next phase of development includes projects in South Canterbury at Clandeboye, Mount Somers and Dunsandel, which are all consented, while another solar farm is being planned for Dargaville on the near horizon “as the next stop in that part of the country”. “We’re just getting started and we’re quite excited about the next couple of years; it will be as busy as ever.” Lodestone Energy www.prolec.co.nz 03 348 8096 servicing@prolec.co.nz Suppliers of fully automated Biomass Boiler control systems throughout New Zealand. With 5 units in Australia and 14 in NZ, the Toploader is now the Go-To solution for receiving, storing and on-feeding biomass. Suits projects from 150m3 to 10,000m3. Proud to be bringing the Toploader to NZ 3-in-1 automated wood fuel storage system Fuel Reception - Bulk storage - Fuel Recovery Multiple advantages: • Full truck-to-storage-to-boiler solution • Large volumes, reducing operational risk • Simple civils - just a at concrete oor contact: rob.m@livingenergy.co.nz | phone: +64 (0)27 257 9001 • Eliminates need for a front-end loader • Low cost wood-panel walls • 30% of the power usage of ‘Live’ floors • Easy & low cost maintenance • Lowest capital & running cost per m3 See www. Toploader ®.com LivingEnergy Lodestone Kaitaia: Lodestone Energy has partnered with Infratec to build its first five solar farms throughout the North Island. www.infratec.co.nz
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