Solar is about to become part of New Zealand’s generation mix. One hundred and seventy three thousand terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously — more than ten thousand times the world’s total energy use. But, when it comes to New Zealand’s electricity market’s transition away from fossil fuels, solar has long been spurned in favour of alternatives such as geothermal and wind. However, over the past 18 months there has been a tectonic shift in view. We’ve seen a flurry of announcements of intentions to build grid-scale solar that has now reached about 8.75 terawatt hours (TWh), the equivalent to around 20% of New Zealand’s current electricity consumption.