Lodestone Energy won our Making a Difference Award in the NZ Compare Awards 2024!
The NZ Compare Awards are back for the 8th year in a row. Last week, we celebrated our winners across a wide range of categories. One such category was our Making a Difference Award, designed to uplift and celebrate a brand or company who is making a difference to local communities in Aotearoa through their creativity, innovation and strategy.
Who is Lodestone Energy?
Lodestone Energy is New Zealand’s leading grid-scale solar generation company. Their vision is to develop and execute utility-scale solar farms that provide lower-cost renewable energy to help with New Zealand’s transition to a low-carbon economy. Their farms are designed to support an innovative Virtual Rooftop Solar solution for commercial and industrial customers who want to completely use renewable energy. The company has two generating solar farms currently in operation in Kaitaia and Edgecumbe, with a further handful under construction and more to begin construction in 2025.
What Problems are They Wanting to Address?
There are a few problems that Lodestone Energy are addressing with their innovations and solar farms.
1. Energy Demand and Carbon Zero Goals
The first problem is New Zealand's growing demand for energy. This growing demand for energy is happening alongside the nation’s goals to reduce carbon emissions. As demand grows, the goal to eliminate carbon emissions becomes more urgent.
Lodestone Energy aims to help solve this problem with their utility-scale solar farms in New Zealand. The first two farms generate over 110 GWh of renewable energy each year. Renewable energy is safe for the environment because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and it comes from a constant source of replenishable energy – the blazing Aotearoa sun. As Lodestone is in the process of establishing more farms across the country, their goal is to generate over 680GWh per year by the financial year of 2028 – that’s a LOT of energy! These farms will help bridge the gap in electricity demand, while simultaneously helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country to combat the impacts of climate change.
2. Limited Knowledge in the Industry
The second problem that Lodestone wants to solve is the lack of expertise in grid-scale solar farm construction. They discovered this problem during the initiation of their solar projects. They noticed that there was limited local experience to draw upon for planning, building and connecting utility-scale solar farms to the local networks.
When Lodestone began planning and construction of the Kohirā Solar Farm, the process provided a valuable opportunity for learning within the industry. Taking the lessons and knowledge gained, Lodestone is applying the information in their design and construction of future solar farms to help New Zealand meet their electricity needs and carbon zero goals.
3. The Growing Demand for Sustainability
The third problem Lodestone Energy aims to address is the growing demand for sustainable energy solutions. As each year passes, New Zealand’s demand for electricity increases. This winter, NZ experienced record-breaking wholesale electricity spot prices, serving as a stark reminder of the volatile market, and the need for businesses to find long-term solutions for their carbon footprint, and negate energy costs.
Their solution? The development of Virtual Rooftop Solar, scalable energy that empowers industrial and commercial customers to use 100% renewable energy for their electricity needs. This means that customers can reduce their emissions, enabling them to become more environmentally and economically sustainable in the long term. Their product also reduces dependencies on expensive carbon credits and fosters long term reliability and stability, helping businesses plan their supply with greater confidence and certainty.
The Judges Comments
NZ Compare is proud to announce Lodestone Energy as the winner of the 2024 Making a Difference Award in the NZ Compare Awards. Our panel of judges agreed that their initiative to add 680GWh of solar electricity to the network by 2028 would be a “game-changer” and that it would power over 86,000 homes annually. “Their commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% of 2005 level enroute to net zero set a high bar for sustainable energy in New Zealand.” Congratulations Lodestone Energy!
The NZ Compare Awards are an annual awards event to celebrate brands and companies in New Zealand who deliver excellence and value to Kiwis within the power and telecommunications industries. Bycelebrating brands who help Kiwis through these challenging times, we hope to empower Kiwis to make better choices with their money and achieve financial well-being.
To see the full list of winners for the NZ Compare Awards, click the button below: