Kōwhai Park
Christchurch International Airport Limited
43°28'51.0"S 172°31'24.6"E
Environmental project management
Strategic environmental advice
Environmental policy and planning
Environmental management
In a push to transition aviation away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, Christchurch Airport is dedicating 400 hectares of land surrounding its runways to developing one of New Zealand’s largest solar arrays. Known as Kōwhai Park, the solar farm will comprise over 300,000 solar panels, capable of generating 150 megawatts of renewable energy. That’s enough to meet the annual electricity demands of 36,000 homes or power half of Christchurch’s domestic flights once converted to low-emissions technology.
Enviser was involved from the outset of the project, providing strategic environmental advice, managing the resource consenting process and preparation of the Environmental Management Plans.
Our knowledge of the unique regulatory constraints within the Christchurch Airport precinct and our expertise in the environmental management of large-scale infrastructure projects, means we are ideally positioned to manage the consenting aspects of Kōwhai Park. We have brought together a team of technical experts to advise Christchurch Airport and its development partners on strategy, potential environmental effects, and to offer solutions to avoid and mitigate these.
With Christchurch Airport also investigating generating green hydrogen onsite, Kōwhai Park has the potential to deliver benefits beyond the aviation industry, including offering clean energy to other large-scale renewable energy users such as data centres and vertical farms, boosting other industries and New Zealand towards a low carbon future. Solar farm construction is expected to begin in 2024, propelling Christchurch Airport towards meeting its carbon zero goals well ahead of 2050.
