New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office (OIO) and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) have jointly released fresh guidance on overseas investment for New Zealand solar and wind farms. With large scale solar farms becoming more common in New Zealand, together with several recent land acquisitions specifically for solar purposes and consented under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (OIA), their guidance (download here) is a useful summary for non-residents contemplating investment in renewables generation within New Zealand.
To date, all solar farm-related applications have received OIO consent, which demonstrates a highly positive regulatory pathway for offshore investors and clearly shows the current Government’s desire to double New Zealand’s renewable energy production, as they have previously indicated.
This new guidance outlines the criteria for consent for solar and wind farms, and helps investors and their legal advisors understand the differences in how solar and wind farms are treated under the Overseas Investment Act. It also highlights aspects of solar farm developments that are different to wind farms, including land tenure arrangements and complementary land use.
Our friends at MinterEllisonRuddWatts have produced a useful article to support this new guidance: https://www.minterellison.co.nz/insights/new-oio-guidance-clears-the-air-for-wind-and-solar-farming.
Here is the original release of information from Land Information New Zealand: https://www.linz.govt.nz/news/2025-01/panui-january-2025.
