Lightyears are award winners!
Lightyears are award winners!
We were immensely proud to receive two SEANZ Industry Awards at their annual gala dinner last month, winning the Utility Scale Solar Trailblazer award, sponsored by SLR Consulting and jointly winning the Best Medium Business award, sponsored by Entelar Group.
The USS Trailblazer award recognised us for “being at the forefront of Utility-Scale Solar in New Zealand, carving out a niche and meeting community energy needs at pace with their AgriPV solar farms.”
“Innovation is something we strive for in all facets of our work as we bring more renewable energy to the country. It’s embedded into every part of the business, from our innovative solar farm design, through to our industry-leading, robust commissioning process developed in-house, the creation of our own tools to use in the build process, and the implementation of an internal knowledge-sharing platform and enhanced project management tools. We are very proud to be recognised for blazing a trail,” says Lightyears’ director and co-founder Matt Shanks.
The Best Medium Business award acknowledged our success in “developing a unique offering in the Utility-Scale market, successfully delivering excellent and impactful community-scale agrivoltaic projects.”
This is exactly what we wanted to do when we started Lightyears Solar: to bring renewable energy to communities across Aotearoa, and to carve out a niche in the market with our medium-sized, agrivoltaic solar farms. We have done just this, complementing larger-scale farms with our projects, and providing greater access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. We’re very proud to be recognised.
We became members of SEANZ because we knew it would provide us with the opportunity to connect, learn, collaborate, and contribute to a growing and vital industry, with members all striving towards the common goal of moving Aotearoa towards a renewable energy future.
The awards were the icing on the cake after SEANZ 2025, where Matt Shanks took part as a key speaker, panellist, and audience member for other discussions and presentations.
“It was a really interesting, valuable event to be part of - learning more about what others are doing, sharing our own knowledge, and seeing the latest technology,” says Matt.
“The awards capped off a great conference. We are building an excellent team at Lightyears, with expertise and innovative practices, and we’re extremely proud to be recognised.”