At the end of February, Lightyears Solar co-founder and development manager, Matt Shanks, joined a group of industry leaders from New Zealand’s renewable energy sector on a tour of Japan, before a final stop in South Korea.
The trip was led by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), and was a chance to showcase some of New Zealand’s best renewable energy projects to Japanese and Korean investors, and to see how our governments are working together to strengthen our relationship.
Matt Shanks (second from right) with the team from Samsung
The Japan leg of the trip included a New Zealand Renewable Energy Seminar in Tokyo and the World Smart Energy Week event, and the tour finished with another seminar in Seoul, South Korea co-hosted by NZTE and the New Zealand Embassy.
Lightyears’ Matt Shanks was one of the speakers at both events, where he presented on solar farming in the New Zealand context, and Lightyears Solar’s own development projects.
“There is less land available for large-scale solar in Japan and Korea, though a large desire to invest in these projects offshore,” says Matt, who says the seminars and other networking events were an ideal way to promote New Zealand as a place with abundant renewable energy resources and meet with potential investors into Lightyears.
“It was a fantastic opportunity for Lightyears to be involved in the trip, and I’m very grateful to NZTE for the invitation to come along and talk about our projects and grow our network, and our knowledge base.”