About Us
WHO WE ARE
We are a nonprofit group, dedicated to helping rural communities save their community, from energy corporations who want to build large-scale, industrial solar power plants on agricultural-and forestry-zoned land.
MISSION
We advocate for responsible solar policies that balance the demand for renewable energy with the interests of counties and their residents. We raise awareness about what is happening in rural communities, and work to save agricultural-forestry zoned land from large, industrial-scale solar developments.
OUR STORY
Kiwis for Responsible Solar was formed by concerned citizens in response to the destruction of the rural landscape in north Waikato by industrial-scale solar development. In 2023, several industrial-scale solar projects targeted Waerenga, Rangiriri, Glen Murray and the banks of Lake Whangape and submitted applications to develop thousands of acres of farmland, woodlands and rural acreage and replace them with hundreds and thousands of solar panels. These projects proposed devastating impact to the environment, threatened historic land, purported questionable economic benefits to the local community and undermined resident property values. Unfortunately, we found that this story was being repeated across New Zealand and we have discovered that most of the developers are international companies looking to profit off our country. First and foremost, we are working hard to protect north Waikato from the continued onslaught of aggressive solar developers, and we are supporting rural residents across the country in their own challenge to preserve their health, safety, rural lifestyle and property.