At a glance
Kōwhai Park, a 150MW solar farm at Christchurch Airport built by Contact Energy and Lightsource bp, officially opened on 15 October 2026 after switching on in August.
Christchurch Airport said when it launched the 400ha park in December 2021 that it would make land available for green data centres.
Contact buys 80% of the output under a 15-year agreement, and dairy company Synlait has contracted to take 25% for two Canterbury sites.
TenPeaks runs a data centre on the airport campus at Perimeter Road, built on airport land for Gen-i, later part of Spark, and due to open in 2013.
Contact, which is exploring a 250MW data centre with CDC at Stratford, says data centres would unlock investment in new renewable power stations.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon opened Kōwhai Park at Christchurch Airport on 15 October 2026. The NZ$273 million solar farm, a joint venture between Contact Energy and Lightsource bp, the solar developer owned by BP, is the first phase of a 400ha energy park the airport launched in 2021 with land set aside for green data centres. The airport now has 150MW of solar generation and Transpower's national grid beside that land, and most of phase one's output is contracted: Contact buys 80% for 15 years and Synlait has contracted a quarter of the output.
Christchurch Airport named data centres as Kōwhai Park users in 2021
When the airport committed 400ha of its Harewood campus to Kōwhai Park in December 2021, then chief executive Malcolm Johns said: "We will be making other land available for green data centres and green vertical farming operators." The airport's February 2023 release naming Contact and Lightsource bp as partners said the park would in time meet the needs of high energy users "like vertical farms and data centres".
Its Kōwhai Park overview still lists green data centres among future users. The site sits next to Transpower's national grid and Orion's Canterbury lines network, and the airport plans its own substation to supply solar power by day and grid power overnight. It is also investigating green hydrogen production on site.
Kōwhai Park adds 150MW to the grid from 300,000 panels
The solar farm runs about 300,000 panels across 230ha leased to the airport by Environment Canterbury. It is rated at 168MW of direct current, or 150MW of alternating current delivered to the grid, and Contact expects about 275GWh a year, equal to the annual demand of about 36,000 homes. The Press described it as the South Island's biggest solar farm. Under cloud at the opening it was producing 90MW.
Construction began in late 2024, with CHINTEC as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and Ventia building the network connection. Contact's August 2024 release to the NZX put the cost at about NZ$273 million, excluding NZ$43 million of financing. Luxon called the park "pretty phenomenal" and said it would help meet rising demand for clean power.
Contact buys 80% of the output under a 15-year agreement
Contact and Lightsource bp each own half of the joint venture, and Contact buys 80% of what it generates under a 15-year power purchase agreement. Contact has on-sold part of that supply: Christchurch Airport and Synlait have both signed long-term agreements to buy Kōwhai Park electricity from Contact, and Synlait will take 25% to power its Dunsandel and Dairyworks sites.
Kōwhai Park is Contact's first completed solar farm, NZ Herald reported. The joint venture's next, the 150MW Glorit solar farm north of Auckland, reached financial close in June 2026 and is due to start operating in the second half of 2028.
A 250MW CDC data centre at Stratford would draw on Contact supply
Contact said in August 2026 it would explore with CDC a 250MW data centre at Stratford, on the site of its retired gas plant in Taranaki, and would be prepared to own up to half. It told shareholders on 16 September 2026 that supply would come under long-term contract from an 11TWh pipeline of geothermal, wind and solar options, and that an anchor tenant, approvals and project finance could clear within six to 12 months. Fuge said data centres would unlock more investment in new renewable power stations.
Nationally, Transpower had 11 data centre projects at assessment or design, totalling about 1GW, according to its count cited by BCG in August 2026.
Christchurch lists five data centres, including TenPeaks on the airport campus
TenPeaks Christchurch West sits at 18 Perimeter Road on the airport campus. Gen-i, later part of Spark, announced the NZ$10.5 million facility in 2012, and the airport built it on its own land to Gen-i's specification for a mid-2013 opening. TenPeaks, the data centre business carved out of Spark, now runs it. Datacom's Gloucester site appears in the New Zealand data centre directory.
Facility | Operator | Location |
|---|---|---|
Christchurch West | TenPeaks | 18 Perimeter Rd, airport campus |
Christchurch Central | TenPeaks | 21 Durham St, central city |
EdgeCentre Christchurch | Chorus | 302 Yaldhurst Rd |
Gloucester | 67 Gloucester St, central city | |
Plan B Christchurch | Plan B | 7 Sir Gil Simpson Dr |
Source: Data Center Map, operator listings, October 2026.
What to watch
A data centre tenant. An operator signing for land at Kōwhai Park would set out the size of the load and whether it buys from Contact or from a new phase of generation on the park.
The rest of the 400ha. The solar farm covers 230ha of the land the airport committed to Kōwhai Park, which was planned to scale up over 30 years when it was announced in 2021.
Environment Canterbury's decision. The regional council is seeking views on another private solar development on its flood protection land between Yaldhurst and West Melton, and will decide in February.