Greener light for renewable energy activities in New Zealand proposed
As part of the Government's recently announced package of reform to the resource management legal framework, sweeping changes have been proposed to the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation (NPS-REG). The changes are intended to strengthen the directiveness of the NPS-REG policies so that decision-makers considering consent applications will be required to give greater weight to the NPS policies than restrictive policies in local planning instruments.
While it is acknowledged that in most cases district and regional plans and regional policy statements will not be amended to implement this new direction until after the Resource Management Act is overhauled next year, in the interim, when in force this new national policy direction will provide a strong basis for consent applications to obtain necessary environmental approvals for renewable energy generation activities. The consenting pathway will be more enabling for renewable energy generation activities.
While we have had a NPS-REG in place in support of renewable electricity generation since 2011, it is outdated both in terms of the industry to which it applies, but also in the context of the legal framework. More recent, directive policy statements, and a strong interpretation approach supported by the Supreme Court have surpassed the older policy direction.
The change to be more directive through the NPS-REG, requiring the benefits of renewable energy to be recognised by consent authorities, are evident from the proposed change to the sole objective of the NPS-REG. It is proposed to read:
Renewable electricity generated in New Zealand:
- increases in a rate and manner necessary to support the achievement of New Zealand’s emission reduction and energy targets and associated plans under the Climate Change Response Act 2002;
- provides greater resilience to disruptions to electricity supply;
- provides for the social, economic and cultural well-being of people and communities, and for their health and safety; while managing the adverse effects of REG activities.
In addition, the Government is proposing to amend some of the existing policies in the NPS-REG to be more directive in order to enable the proposed objective, recognise that decreases and increases in generation output have an impact on meeting New Zealand's REG, emission reduction and energy targets, clarify the meaning of functional need and operational need in relation to the location of REG; to strengthen the requirement to protect REG assets from reverse sensitivity effects and to better enable effective and efficient consenting, operation, maintenance and upgrading of small and community scale activities.
Additional new policies are also proposed to better enable REG activities and protect existing REG assets while managing effects on the environment. These are proposed in place of some of the more directive environmental protection provided through the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity which does not apply to REG activities.
When read alongside the other components of the infrastructure and development reform package, the Government is sending a strong signal that New Zealand is open for business in the renewable energy space. This includes the proposed removal of LUC category 3 land from what is considered to be "Highly Productive" land in New Zealand (potentially freeing up more rural land for development opportunities), the introduction of a new National Policy Statement for Infrastructure (which would cover energy activities not captured by the NPS-REG or the National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks (NPS-EN)), updates to, and replacement of, the National Policy Statement for Electricity Transmission with the NPS-EN and its supporting National Environmental Standards and a proposed expansion to the recognition of beneficial activities in the coastal environment beyond just those with a functional need to operate there, to those with an operational need as well.
Consultation on the infrastructure and development reform package is open until 27 July 2025. Watch this space as our team will provide more details as they become available. If you would like to discuss how the national direction reform will impact you, please contact your usual DLA Piper advisor.
