Power Plant

Kōwhai solar farm

New Zealand

49th-largest power plant in New Zealand of 98 · top 64% worldwide (#18,943 of 29,849)

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Owner: Contact Energy Ltd, Christchurch International Airport Limited (CIAL), Lightsource BP
Status: construction
Capacity: 170 MW
Fuel: solar
Commissioned: 2026

Comparable power plants · New Zealand · 98 ranked

#1South Taranaki Bight (Taranaki Offshore Partners) offshore wind farm2.0 GW · wind
#47Greytown (FNSF) solar farm175 MW · solar
#48Tauhara geothermal power plant174 MW · geothermal
#49Kōwhai solar farm170 MW · solar
#50Stratford solar farm170 MW · solar
#51Mamaku wind farm168 MW · wind

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Grid connection · within 50 km

Strongest line nearby: 350 kV HVDC
Line operator: Transpower New Zealand
Substations in range: 0

Mapped grid infrastructure from OpenStreetMap, whose coverage is excellent in some regions and sparse in others. Nothing shown here means nothing is mappednearby — not that the site is unconnected. Lines are matched on a segment’s midpoint, so a corridor passing directly overhead can be missed; this under-reports rather than invents.

Co-located infrastructure · within 25 km

Spark Data Centre1.3 km · Data Centre
HP Secure1.5 km · Data Centre
Swannanoa solar farm14 km · Power Plant · 200 MW · solar
Lyttelton Port of Christchurch Coal Terminal18 km · Export Terminal
Lyttelton Port of Christchurch Coal Terminal18 km · Export Terminal

On the interactive map

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Portfolio

All assets by Contact Energy Ltd →All assets by Christchurch International Airport Limited (CIAL) →All assets by Lightsource BP →

SOURCE: Global Energy Monitor · Global Integrated Power (CC BY 4.0)