Energy Minister Simeon Brown has expressed concern for SolarZero employees and contractors who are facing job losses just weeks before Christmas, as the solar energy company collapses into liquidation.
SolarZero services around 15,000 homes across New Zealand, holding approximately 25% of the residential rooftop solar market.
BlackRock Real Assets, a division of the global investment firm BlackRock, acquired solarZero in September 2022.
As part of the acquisition, BlackRock committed over NZD 100 million over the subsequent three years to accelerate the growth of solarZero’s solar and battery technology platform.
In September 2023, the then Labour government, through the New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF), invested $80 million in solarZero.
This investment was part of a larger $170 million funding round, which also included $90 million from international investors First Sentier Investors and Natixis Investment Managers.
The funding aimed to accelerate the deployment of residential solar and battery systems across New Zealand, supporting the country’s transition to renewable energy.
Minister Brown said “My thoughts go out to SolarZero’s employees and contractors who are facing losing their jobs just before Christmas.
“I understand that the services are still running and that none of SolarZero’s customers are being disconnected because of this development.
Ahead of the liquidation, Verofi has been appointed as the replacement service provider to ensure energy services to customers across the country were uninterrupted,” he said.
Brown said he had asked officials to monitor the situation closely. “I have asked my officials to monitor the situation and provide me further updates as they become available. I advise anyone concerned about their electricity connection to reach out to their retailer.”
The Minister also addressed SolarZero’s connection to New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF), a government-funded initiative established under the previous administration to support green energy projects.
“New Zealand Green Investment Finance was established under the previous government. As a schedule 4A company, the monitoring responsibility sits with Treasury, and the Minister of Climate Change is the responsible Minister,” Brown said.
The collapse of SolarZero has sparked concerns about the oversight of government-backed investments in renewable energy and the broader implications for the sector.
Former Energy Minister Megan Woods told chrislynchmedia.com “it is really saddening and disappointing to hear about the liquidation of Solar Zero yesterday. There is still a lot of uncertainty around the situation, and we don’t know the full story.
“What I do know is that in order for innovative companies like this to succeed and ultimately for consumers to have lower power bills there needs to be strong leadership from Government.
I will be asking the Minister what he has done to keep the momentum on creating the flexible markets we need for innovation like this, and what impact his government’s scrapping of the Distributed Flexibility Innovation Fund and other effective climate action had on the failure of this company.”
