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After the announcement of the Government's policy statement on electricity, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey explains why we need a level playing field for customers, a more efficient electricity system and the smallest possible investment in gas.
As a voice for the New Zealanders who use the energy system and an organisation focused on electrifying almost everything, we were pleased to see the policy statement from Energy Minister Simeon Brown last week showing the Government’s commitment to ensuring more affordable and reliable electricity.
The statement contains some good points - particularly around rewarding customers fairly for their contributions, whether by reducing their demand or providing electricity through solar and batteries. But, as we said when the Energy Competition Taskforce was announced, the time for thinking is over. Now is the time for doing - and a lot of that doing needs to happen quickly and in a way that doesn’t actually increase customers’ bills.
As we have argued loudly and often, new technology means customers now need to be seen as a critical part of our energy infrastructure. So seeing this paragraph in the statement - and especially the word ‘households’ - warmed our hearts: “Technology advances are making it easier for new players (including households) to provide generation, energy storage or demand response services. It is important that our system promotes innovation across the system for the benefit of consumers.”
We were also pleased to see this included: “If demand-side response is available in the market at a lower price, it should displace generation as the preferred source for meeting additional demand.”
Demand-side flexibility, where customers shift their usage to different times or reduce their usage at times of high demand, is a crucial part of that equation. Large users have been able to benefit financially by reducing usage, but smaller users have largely been asked to do it out of the goodness of their hearts when there is a potential shortage. Some retailers are offering payments to customers who reduce their usage at certain times, but mandatory incentives are required.
There is no magical difference between an electron saved and an electron exported, so if the Minister is wanting to create a fair market and ensure efficient network investment, then Symmetrical Export Tariffs (SETs) are essential.
SETs ensure customers with solar and particularly batteries are paid fairly for exporting at peak times. It’s important to stress that they are not a rebate or a subsidy. They are simply levelling the playing field so that households, farms, and businesses can compete with the big players. It is what a fair market looks like. For too long, large-scale generation and infrastructure has been seen as the only option, but if a customer’s solar and battery can provide electricity at a cheaper price than the network, they should be the preferred source.
While batteries are individually small, they add up. As an example, just 120,000 homes (or five percent of New Zealand households) with a medium-sized battery could potentially reduce the peak load as much as our largest hydro power station, Manapouri. While these batteries would not hold as much energy as Manapouri, they could output the same amount of power for an hour or two when the system really needs it.
Every home with a battery basically removes themselves from peak, and it could potentially remove their neighbours from peak, too. This means we may not need to invest as much in the poles and wires to deal with that peak demand. Better incentives like SETs would grow demand for rooftop solar and batteries, speed up payback, and increase our resilience.
Retailers should also be paying customers for their exports at a rate closer to the wholesale price, rather than continuing to profit from those households’ private investments, something we believe is akin to ‘energy scalping’.
Utilisation Targets for every network would also help improve efficiency. Like highways, electricity lines are not always busy and have short periods of high demand. We will definitely need some grid upgrades to cope with the expected increase in demand as we electrify but, on average, our lines are at 30-40% capacity. So with smart demand management (like charging EVs or heating water during the day) and better pricing signals that encourage savings and export at peak, we could increase that utilisation substantially without over-investing in new poles and wires, which will be paid for by customers over time on their bills.
This Government says it wants to promote action. And if it truly wants to ensure low-cost electricity for New Zealanders, it needs to make sure all of this happens by next April when the industry resets its tariffs.
We fully back the mission to get more large-scale solar and wind farms up and running. But we need to keep reiterating that customers do not pay wholesale prices, just as they don’t pay the price of a barrel of oil when they fill up with petrol. They pay retail rates, and grid electricity is much more expensive to customers than rooftop solar. That gap looks set to grow as solar and batteries keep dropping in price and grid electricity continues to increase.
In many cases, even if a power plant could generate completely free electricity, it would be more expensive to a customer than rooftop solar because the distribution, transmission, and retail markup alone already exceeds the cost of generating from your roof. There are nuances here, but those nuances don’t make enough of a difference to change the equation.
If 80% of New Zealand’s households had a 9Kw rooftop solar system, that would add around 40% more generation to the country’s total. And if all our farms had mid-sized solar systems, that would be another 60%. The Government’s goal is to double the country’s renewable energy by 2030. We could get there with solar on existing rooftops and on farms, and we'd love to see more batteries to store it. It would also be the cheapest electricity for those customers and help bring the price down for everyone else too.
More competition is important, but retail competition is largely a distraction because customers’ bills are already going up by so much anyway, as the table below shows (the red line is what is expected to happen to the price when the cost of all the poles and wires is added to customers’ bills and the black and grey lines show how solar and batteries basically lock in the price of electricity by paying for it upfront).
Where we need more competition is between customers and large players. Large infrastructure projects have received favourable finance in the past. That’s why we’re asking the Government to help customers finance the upfront costs of electrification. By tying loans to property and paying back the balance when that property sells, it would come at little to no cost to government and would significantly reduce the cost of living and our emissions.
The term fuel agnostic is used in the policy statement, but it will be impossible to offer cheaper electricity for consumers if we use expensive fuels to create it. The sooner we get off gas, the sooner New Zealanders will have lower bills because gas in all its forms - fossil gas, so-called ‘renewable’ gas, hydrogen, LPG, liquid natural gas (LNG) - is now more expensive than electrification. We may need gas in the short term to shore up our electricity system or for certain sectors, but gas in homes is dumb - economically and for health reasons - and should play no role in the future.
Looking at it from the perspective of the Energy Minister, however, the proposed LNG terminal makes some sense - at least temporarily and if done in the right way. Our economy relies on a stable electricity system and the Minister’s primary job is to ensure we have enough supply to meet demand. As we saw this year, we came close to the wrong side of that equation when our hydro storage and gas supplies were low, demand was high and prices spiked.
Suggesting LNG could play a role may be seen as surprising for an organisation like Rewiring Aotearoa, which is focused on making New Zealand one of the world’s most electric economies by 2040. But we’re pragmatic about our transition and it is likely to help get us through the next few years while all these new renewable projects are built and while the system adapts to more decentralised, and therefore more affordable, generation and storage.
We argued successfully to the Commerce Commission in our DPP4 submission that we should consider the role that existing technologies like rooftop solar, batteries and demand response could play before we commit to massive investments in poles and wires. We should be doing the same thing with this piece of proposed infrastructure and looking at the most temporary facility possible with no long-term agreements locking New Zealanders into decades of high electricity prices and unnecessary emissions.
As our Electric Homes Report showed, buying fossil fuel machines now locks households into decades of increasingly expensive fuel and unnecessary emissions. The same economic scenario applies to the country as a whole. We don’t want to commit to a massive infrastructure spend that customers will have to pay for or long-term contracts for expensive LNG when there are already cheaper options available and new advances on the horizon. That would contradict the policy statement about affordable electricity and it also runs the risk of emboldening other industry players who will see it as a signal to invest in more gas infrastructure.
We would love it if our country was able to generate all the electricity it needed without any fossil fuels, but it’s not possible - yet - because the incentives aren’t right and there is so little support for customers. And while it may irritate those who think our country’s approach to infrastructure is too often about a minimal viable product, we really do not want to overcommit to this.
There has long been talk of closing the Huntly coal-fired power station, but closing that and opening an LNG terminal is a false economy because coal is cheaper. It’s also a false environmental economy because “recent research indicates that LNG could actually emit 33% more greenhouse gas emissions than coal over a 20-year period”.
Around the world, many governments are moving away from fossil fuels for electricity - primarily for economic reasons but also to reduce emissions - and the International Energy Agency released a report recently that predicted an almost threefold increase in renewable capacity by 2030.
It’s an exciting time to be in renewable energy. In the UK, the last coal-fired power plant was recently decommissioned, and despite some sceptics suggesting there would be a shortage of electricity, the predictions for supply are the best in years, largely due to “new interconnections, battery storage growth and increased distributed generation capacity”. California is providing an increasing amount of electricity at peak times through batteries that are able to store cheap solar and wind throughout the day. Texas, a state synonymous with fossil fuels has become a clean energy giant and is rolling out solar and batteries at a rapid pace. Australia recently produced more than half of its total electricity supply from rooftop solar. And we are also starting to see successful pilot projects overseas that use electric vehicles - from utes parked in people’s garages to school buses in parking lots - to feed electricity from their massive batteries back into the grid.
Unlike many countries, New Zealand has the benefit of a world-leading hydro scheme. Generating more wind and solar - at scale and on rooftops - and then being able to call on customers to do their bit would help maintain our lake levels for the winter peak and avoid the ridiculously high wholesale prices we’ve seen this year.
While our electricity system is highly renewable, it’s important to remember that fossil fuels still account for around 70% of our total energy use. Climate change is largely an energy problem and solving it in practice is a machine problem. That’s why our solution is to swap fossil fuel machines in New Zealand for more efficient electric equivalents and power them with New Zealand-made renewable electricity.
This isn’t a cost, however. As our Investing in Tomorrow report outlined, an aggressive electrification campaign would save New Zealand households almost $11 billion a year by 2040. With our renewable resources, this is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to lead the world and, as Danyl McLauchlan wrote in The Listener: “Eventually, someone will have to notice tens of billions of dollars lying on the ground, just waiting to be picked up."
We don’t want to keep lurching from one energy crisis to the next, with temporary fixes proposed every few years. We need an energy strategy that creates the cheapest and most renewable energy system in the world. The creation of the Energy Competition Taskforce and the Government’s policy statement on electricity is positive, but talk is cheap. In a country like New Zealand, electricity should be cheap too - and it can be, as long as it’s generated in the right way and as long as the government and the regulators follow through on the promises to level the playing field for customers and ensure they become part of our energy infrastructure.
It's a two-way street this week as energy minister makes positive noises about 'big batteries on wheels' playing a role in the energy system (and Zaptec smart chargers aim very high with a new campaign), Fed-Ex rolls out a few more electric delivery vans and wonders why everyone else isn't doing it, the story behind New Zealand's first electric coffee roastery in Queenstown, Christchurch Airport also claims a first with an electric firetruck, and Nat Bullard shows what's going on with the climate and where we're getting our energy from.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kathryn Ryan talked to Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey and Electricity Networks Aotearoa's Tracey Kai about the changes proposed by the Energy Competition Taskforce and how they will improve the already impressive return on investment for solar and batteries. As Casey said, the most important thing to remember is that the biggest benefits to households come from using solar as it is the cheapest form of delivered electricity available to New Zealand homes and those with electric machines and cars can save thousands each year on their energy bills. Exporting excess energy is generally a cherry on top and the proposed changes to reward peak export might only represent a small increase for households, but they may be significant for farmers or businesses with more space. More solar and batteries also helps to bring down the cost for everyone on the network, reduces the need for expensive pole and wire upgrades, which are paid for on customers' bills and can also help create more security of supply by keeping water in the dams.
A love letter to electrification this week as a kea soars high on solar, more electric buses for Auckland (and more Rivian vans for businesses), longer lasting EV batteries, more solar on smart schools, an open letter to the Australian Government asking for 'Real Zero' not net zero, and the world's first electric snowbike.
Read moreDownloadAs Rewiring Aotearoa’s Electric Homes research has shown, New Zealand has already reached the electrification tipping point, so going electric and running your home and car with a combination of grid electricity and rooftop solar and batteries is already a good economic decision for most homes (and likely the best thing they can do to reduce emissions). But, as Newsroom's Marc Daalder writes about the Energy Competition Taskforce proposals (paywalled), "proposed changes to the electricity market could see Kiwis paid more for the solar power they export to the grid, and less when drawing from the grid at off-peak times".
Read moreDownload"I firmly believe electricity is the next crop for farmers in New Zealand, and the more farmers that get involved in this, the better the returns for farmers are going to be ... My big dream is that farmers start powering New Zealand. That would be really cool." Seven Sharp ventured to Cromwell recently and Rachel Parkin put together a beautiful story about the all-electric Forest Lodge Orchard. The team has proven that it's possible to grow cherries without burning any diesel on the farm - 'not a single drop,' as manager Euan White says - and that farmers can play a role in the energy system by generating, using, storing and exporting their own electricity. At the moment, many homes, farms and businesses are reliant on expensive molecules sent to us from the other side of the world. Fossil fuels have taken us a long way, but there is a better and cheaper option: locally-produced electrons. That's good for businesses, and good for the country as a whole. Watch the show on TVNZ+ (skip to 4 mins).
Fully Charged, which has a large global reach and claims to be the world's number one home energy and electric vehicle channel, came to visit Mike Casey at the all-electric Forest Lodge recently. As host Robert Llewellyn (who Red Dwarf fans may recognise) says: "I think this is a shining example of what can be done today and what should be be done, particularly for countries like New Zealand that have to import their fossil fuels from a long, long way away".
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Susan Edmunds reports on the Energy Competition Taskforce proposals and says the changes "should lead to New Zealanders with solar power systems on their houses get more of a return for any power they put back into the system". As Electricity Authority chair Anna Kominik says: "New Zealand's electricity market currently relies on a few big generators to supply electricity at select locations and transmit it to households and businesses across the country. But as uptake of solar and battery systems continues to increase, more consumers will be able to contribute to our electricity system. And as smart electronics and vehicles become more ubiquitous, consumers will also be able to more actively manage their own energy use and costs. We're proposing three changes to help support this consumer empowerment and decentralisation of our energy system. Over time, this will increase community resilience and lower power costs for everyone," she said.
Read moreDownloadHomeowners with solar panels and batteries installed could be paid more to sell electricity back to the grid, reports TVNZ's Jessica Roden following the release of the Energy Competition Taskforce proposals. As Nelson solar installer Jon Pirie says in the piece, perfectly illustrating the 'neighbourhood effect', "year over year, people are more interested. They see the power bills going down and next thing the neighbours have got solar." Mike Casey also appears in the story saying anything we can do to incentivise customers to install their own generation and storage will help create the cheapest energy system.
Rewiring Aotearoa's response to the Energy Competition Taskforce: a pat on the back for recognising the shift and focusing on the role customers are playing - and will play - in the energy system, but just a light pat because more could be done to ensure the proposals are followed through on.
Read moreDownloadWe're definitely not running on fumes this week ... Why our electric future - from e-bikes to e-boats - looks both fun and functional, why swapping fuel for finance is crucial for homeowners (and access to capital is crucial for businesses like Chargenet that are helping to speed up the transition), how renewable energy projects are helping developing countries and low-income communities, and an ad from 1929 that reminds us of something.
Read moreDownloadStuff's Kylie Klein Nixon showcases the many benefits of Carl Hamlin's electric new build, which includes a hot water heat pump and solar panels. As the story says: "Water heating comprises about 1/3 of a household’s energy use, [EECA's Gareth] Gretton says. Hot water systems have a 15-year life expectancy, and 46% of hot water systems in New Zealand are over 10 years old. When we do replace old hot water systems, there is a tendency to replace like-for-like." Gas is the most expensive, hot water heat pumps have the lowest running costs and you're likely to make the most savings by electrifying your vehicle. If you want to save cash and slash emissions, your next purchasing decision should be electric.
Read moreDownloadThe most important energy cost is not what a corporation pays to produce or generate it, but what a consumer pays to buy it. That’s why Mike Casey argues the delivered cost of rooftop solar and batteries – and the other benefits these technologies provide to the system – need to be factored in when making investment decisions.
Read moreDownloadNew suburb-wide electrification pilot projects set to kick off in Australia, Fonterra's electrification plan to upgrade its boilers and trial EV tankers, Napier EV charging business Kwetta eyes up global expansion, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi talks about the massive rise of electric taxis, the German balcony solar movement spreads into Spain, and what if fossil fuel cars were the new technology?
Read moreDownloadThe Post's Alka Prasad has gone deep into how farmers are electrifying their operations, installing solar and batteries to alleviate concerns about dry years, and reducing their energy costs. As Maniototo farmer and owner of Solayer Becks Smith says in the story: "It's not an either-or situation from hydro-generated electricity to solar-generated electricity. It's about having a renewable electricity grid and shifting as far from fossil-fuel energy as we can,” she says. “For business resilience, the energy you can generate and use yourself is the cheapest energy you'll ever get." Rewiring Aotearoa CEO and electric orchardist Mike Casey says "farmers could have a huge positive influence on New Zealand's electricity system by generating power themselves and putting it into the grid for everybody else to be able to heat their homes, heat their water and charge their electric vehicles". "We can treat our hydropower scheme more like a battery which could power our homes and businesses at night time and solar can do a lot of the grunt work during the day,” he adds.
Read moreDownloadSome big switch energy this week as solar panels go vertical on farms (and on fences), induction disappears in fancy kitchens and celebrity chefs move towards the magnets, Counties Energy pushes a vision of the future that we can get behind, Bunnings spots a trend and launches a new range of EV charging products, and a brilliant game created to annoy asset managers investing in fossil fuels.
Read moreDownloadWriting in Newsroom, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey looks at what's holding New Zealanders back from buying EVs despite the many benefits and why this technological shift is inevitable. "Incumbents always try to cling on, but the horse and cart is now a novelty, as is the landline, the fax machine and the Blackberry. These technologies served us well at the time, but they have been usurped and my prediction is that petrol and diesel vehicles are next."
Read moreDownloadIn need of some good climate news? Writing in the NZ Herald, Simon Wilson has compiled a list of New Zealand entrepreneurs and innovators, including Rewiring Aotearoa CEO and 'electric orchardist' Mike Casey, who are pushing things in a more positive direction. We need action across the board if we have any hope of reaching our climate targets, but energy is one area where positivity is warranted because the costs of renewables and electric machines continue to drop. At Rewiring Aotearoa we believe electrifying our homes, vehicles, farms and businesses will save us all money and help us address climate change. So let's embrace that win-win.
Read moreDownloadMike Casey talks to Jamie McKay on The Country about the current cherry market, what's happening with EVs, why investing in solar can help reduce energy farmers' costs and his plans for 2025.
New research from Rewiring America explores homeowner awareness and motivations for making the switch from fossil fuels to electric - and offer some helpful guidance for anyone looking to convince New Zealand homeowners to go electric.
Read moreDownloadWe're getting high on electrons this week as aviation goes electric in New Zealand and around the world, the rise of the anti Elon Tesla Club, how Toyota could be the next Kodak after ignoring the rise of EVs, inside the struggle of a family-owned oil company and more marae add solar and batteries to prepare for emergencies.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa's Mike Casey joined Schneider Electric's Diana Ruiz Díaz to discuss the economic benefits of electric vehicles, smart residential charging and the essential role electricians will play in New Zealand's energy transition
Read moreDownload2025 is off to an electric start, as BYD announces a big price drop for some models in Australia (and the country hits record EV sales in 2024), Kia goes electric for the Australian Open , Rafa does some electric surfing, and Mike Casey tows tonnes of electric cherries with his EV9, new research from Massey and Lincoln looks at the win-win of combining solar panels and agriculture, and why pay for an expensive, unpredictable fossil fuel subscription when you could lock in the savings (and emissions reductions) of going electric.
Read moreDownloadCasey's work demonstrating how electric technology that is available today can lead to more profitable businesses and his electrification advocacy work as CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa has earned him another title, this time the Otago Daily Times business leader of the year.
Read moreDownloadCharge your glasses for the last Electic Avenue of the year, with research from Australia showing areas with higher unemployment rates are more likely to seek out the cost savings and bill certainty of solar, residents of Thames protesting about high petrol prices are reminded that electricity is the cheapest fuel and rooftop solar is the cheapest electricity, the first Windrose electric truck has landed in New Zealand and the efficiency of electricity smashes the other options, why tradies will be the heroes of the energy transition (and have a big role to play in terms of recommendations) and a clever induction stove that doesn't require any wiring changes.
Read moreDownloadAs we conclude another rotation around that free nuclear fusion reactor in the sky, we’re looking back on a big year for Rewiring Aotearoa - and looking forward to New Zealand’s inevitable transition to electric machines powered by renewable energy.
Read moreDownloadFocusing on the emissions reductions at home through electrification is a major opportunity (and challenge) for Aotearoa NZ. Homes, farms, and businesses must play a role in driving emissions reductions through electrification and the potential must be recognised and addressed to our 2035 international climate change target.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa believes we need to make better use of our existing infrastrucuture, see customers as an essential part of a 21st Century energy system and that electrification will lead to much greater energy security and resilience.
Read moreDownloadUsing heatpumps instead of fossil fuels is shown to save lives and money, Powerco's plea to its gas customers that they avoid reality, Paddy Gower visits a zero energy bills home, EV charging sees the light and takes to the streets, and the Popemobile plugs in.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa's submission to the Electricity Authority on its Network Connections Project - Stage One is in and it is good to see the Authority practicing its statutory objective of protecting the interests of consumers.
Read moreDownloadFollowing the release of the Second Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP2), Rewiring Aotearoa is pleased the country is likely to meet its emissions budgets, but believes there is more the Government could do to help households, businesses and farms slash their fossil fuel consumption and contribute to the reductions required, and no need to rely on unproven technology or a few more decades of gas for electricity generation.
Read moreDownloadPaddy Gower recently paid Forest Lodge a visit on his national tour and Mike Casey was featured as The Brainy Kiwi. Casey explains the problem he's trying to solve and why he believes generating your own energy and using it at the source is a much better and more efficient way to run our homes and businesses. Watch from 18m40s.
Read moreDownloadThe New Zealand Herald's Chris Keall (paywalled) has gone deep on the SolarZero collapse and, while there are still questions being asked about the public investment, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says it was a business model failure and, just as Kodak didn't define the camera industry, this shouldn't define a sector or dent confidence in the technology. Energy Minister Simeon Brown also talked about a number of positive changes that will make it cheaper and easier to install rooftop solar.
Read moreDownloadRNZ Afternoons host Jesse Mulligan interviewed Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey about how the new household electrification calculator can help New Zealanders get off gas and petrol, how the finances stack up, and why SolarZero is a business model failure that has nothing to do with solar technology.
Lots of electric gifts under the tree this week as batteries keep getting cheaper, hydrogen still not the solution for light transport, cutting carbon with electric lawnmowers, how electric wallpaper can help get homes off gas, and solar powered hats, candy floss, festivals and maybe even movies.
Read moreDownloadIn the wake of the Solar Zero liquidation, Lightforce Solar managing director John Harman and SEANZ chief executive Brendan Winitana speak to RNZ's Kathryn Ryan about the regulatory changes required to level the playing field for solar and battery owners (like fair rates for exporting at peak periods and export rates that are closer to the wholesale price) and the need for a more modern two-way grid.
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment opened consultation on a discussion document about amendments to the Electricity Safety Regulations to expand the permitted voltage range for electricity supply. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission believes changes are needed to prepare for the rapid adoption of customer energy resources, and electricity distribution companies need to be compelled to allow export limits to be increased.
Read moreDownloadThe Department for Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry for the Environment proposed a topic for a Long Term Insights Briefing entitled 'Everyone plays a part: building New Zealand’s resilience in the context of global trends and our unique natural environment'. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission says energy security and resilience, critical infrastructure failing and commodity/energy price shocks are especially important for Aotearoa NZ’s resilience to future challenges, and farms can also play an important role.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey is intereviewed by Checkpoint's Lisa Owen about the SolarZero saga and says solar remains the future, but owning your panels rather than renting them is the way to deliver the biggest savings.
The electric bandwagon is speeding up, as EECA launches a clever cost-saving campaign showcasing the benefits of electric homes, Octopus opens the doors of New Zealand's first zero energy bills home this weekend, the silent solar revolution is spreading through the developed world, a glorious graph that shows energy economics winning over politics, Ford's new EV ute shows its towing prowess, and Mike Casey embraces his inner electric bogan.
Read moreDownloadAs domestic gas supplies dwindle, homes are at risk of exponential cost rises and loss of supply. Financing electric upgrades is the best way to avoid a chaotic transition and is especially important for low-income households.
Read moreDownloadA big week in the long-running battle to turn EVs into batteries on wheels, researchers prove that using cheap solar during the day to heat the water is a good idea for customers and the grid, a solar map of New Zealand that offers lot more detail, tiny turbines (and tiny homes inside massive turbines) and a flood resistant EV.
Read moreDownloadWairarapa is the place to be this week, writes Rewiring Aotearoa's ecosystem lead Jay Salzke. The Electrify Wairarapa Conference and Expo is kicking off in Masterton on the 22nd-23rd November and anyone interested in learning more about the massive electrification opportunity in front of local businesses, farms, vineyards, orchards, schools, community centres and homes across the region should be there.
Read moreDownloadWe're sparking joy this week with Saul Griffith's electric solar powered scooter, Australia and Texas hit major solar milestones, Coldplay creates a truly electric atmosphere, Mike Hosking's EV queries answered with a graph, Kia's new concept car, and Counties Energy teaches kids about solar by taking the grand prix to school.
Read moreDownloadA bumper crop of electric goodies this week, with Douglas Park school in Wairarapa impressing with its solar, a rare bright spot for the climate as the world continues to run on the sun, UC researchers get funding to push perovskite, the world's most sustainable snowmobile, an EV expo in Christchurch and a true electric tinkerer.
Read moreDownloadNew Zealand's emissions have fallen for the past three years. That's positive, but Rohan MacMahon, a Partner and Co-founder of the Climate Venture Capital Fund, believes we need to push harder and fully embrace electrification.
Read moreDownloadWe're in the business of changing perspectives at Rewiring Aotearoa and this week's Electric Avenue is a doozy, with Octopus Energy showing that customers will change their behaviour if there's money to be made, Australian coal miners drive a Tesla and have their minds blown/changed, an engine lover's break up letter with diesel boats after experiencing Vessev's VS-9, the IEA's latest report offers a revealing comparison, the story of the 'genius solar plane that can fly forever', Rainn Wilson pleads with the powers that be to heed his warnings, and ad network Ogilvy gets a fossil fuel flogging.
Read moreDownloadA groundbreaking pilot to electrify 500 homes in the Illawarra region of NSW was announced in Australia recently after a two-year campaign led by the local community.
Read moreDownloadPut your tongue on that battery, folks, because there's a groundbreaking pilot project in Australia that offers a glimpse at an electric future, a Wairarapa marae with solar and batteries is helping improve resilience after emergencies, solar farms are proving resilient to major weather events, fossil fuel gardening gear is getting the chop, golf courses are going electric and there's another beautiful electric caravan to drool over.
Read moreDownloadWe’ve got a focus on the flames in this edition of Electric Avenue, with Dunedin company Escea’s new electric (and holographic) fire, a battery induction stove that’s well-suited to the outdoors, some amazing electric fire trucks, the rise of all-electric stadia, why nuclear might be a good option (if you buy your own reactor) and battery prices drop by more than analysts expected.
Read moreDownloadAfter the announcement of the Government's policy statement on electricity, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey explains why we need a level playing field for customers, a more efficient electricity system and the smallest possible investment in gas.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kathryn Ryan has talked to energy researchers who claim rising demand for electricity in summer (largely due to increasing air conditioning requirements and EVs) will have repercussions on lake levels come next winter. And while Transpower says the risks of an electricity supply shortage this year have eased, next winter's forecast is concerning. Irrigation is also a major user of electricity in summer in some regions. Solar is well-suited to both of these cases as the electricity is usually required during the day when the sun is out, so more solar at home and on our farms can provide a lot of what we need with less strain on the grid and at the lowest cost.
As David Hasselhoff almost sang, jump in my much cheaper and increasingly popular electric car and see why 96% of EV owners would buy a second one; the UK's last coal-fired electricity plant is switched off; the IEA's renewables report makes for good reading; a Rivian takes an unexpected trip down a river; and comedian Tim Robinson gives some helpful advice to climate change communicators.
Read moreDownloadGather round the heat pump, children, as we explore the big benefits of battery recycling, how customers giving up control can help the grid, a radical new plan for electric transport in Queenstown, big trucks, big chargers and big electric ferries, and a look at just what has been captured when it comes to carbon capture.
Read moreDownloadMike Casey learned about the difference between planting carbon-sucking trees and avoiding carbon-emitting diesel when he was setting up his Central Otago cherry orchard. As he writes in The Spinoff, seeing this laid out was something of an 'emissions epiphany' and showed he had good intentions but was focusing on the wrong thing. He believes "many New Zealanders are also focusing on the wrong thing and could do with an emissions epiphany of their own". Electrifying your car, cooktop, water heater and space heater and powering them with renewable energy from rooftop solar, home battery and the grid is likely to have the biggest impact on your emissions tally. And, by comparing these 'dinner table decisions' with return flights between Queenstown and Auckland, the piece shows that substitution is often more effective than sacrifice.
Read moreDownloadIn this week's e-party, gas in homes is dumb and electric homes are not, a simple solution for those who need to charge their EVs on the street, the wooden winds of change are blowing, and more electric tractor news (this time from the 1920s).
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa's Investing in Tomorrow report shined a light on the multi-billion dollar opportunity in front of New Zealand if we rapidly electrify our homes and cars. Danyl McLauchlan's latest column (paywalled) in The Listener examines what's stopping that opportunity from being realised (hint: incumbent interests and a profitable status quo being protected by industry lobbyists "swarming the Beehive like flies around a dead cat"). As he writes: "Eventually, someone will have to notice tens of billions of dollars lying on the ground, just waiting to be picked up – even if political expedience and ideological dogma are screaming at them to ignore it."
Read moreDownloadDr. Rajeev Shah is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation and, as world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly, he argues that nothing matters more to individual well-being than energy, which is what leaders need to focus on. As he writes: "Electrifying the world could produce the largest development gains since the 1990s. Electrification is about more than progress for individuals; it makes the world safer and more secure. High energy prices are straining livelihoods at a moment when coups, migration and unrest are destabilizing regions. And because the countries where energy access is lowest are projected to produce as much as 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, connecting people there to clean energy can help prevent climate catastrophe for us all."
Read moreDownloadIt's all about the batteries in this week's electrification whip around. Big ones, small ones (but not uncomfortable ones), we love them all and an Aussie legend has developed an affordable way to run our homes with our EVs, a US startup is electrifying school buses and using them to help the grid, Lincoln University rolls out a new electric tractor, Meridian's storage solution is set to power 60,000 homes at peak times (and the company is also set to give away $1.2 million for community electrification projects), and global solar installs continue to exceed industry expectations.
Read moreDownloadFarmers stand to save money, make money and reduce emissions by adopting electric technology and powering it with solar and batteries. But, as the story in Farmers Weekly says, one sticking point for farmers is that, at present, they can’t gain the full value from rooftop solar when they have multiple connection points on one farm. Rewiring Aotearoa has called on the Government to make some regulatory changes so t farms with multiple connection points are able to group them together for billing purposes and make the most of their solar generation across the business.
Read moreDownloadMike Casey talks to Ben Chapman-Smith about how Kiwi farmers can get started on their electric journey and move away from diesel-driven machinery, while also outlining a few requests for Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay that would make on-farm solar even more beneficial.
Let's raise the roof! 🏠🌞 Customers with solar and batteries need to be seen as a critical part of our 21st Century energy system and academics from Auckland University of Technology agree, pointing out that the 14 biggest rooftops in Auckland would be equivalent to New Zealand’s largest solar farm. The rooftops of 167 schools and supermarkets would provide the same amount of energy, albeit much closer to the point of consumption and that's why we're arguing for a more decentralised system.
Read moreDownloadThe rise (and savings) of hot water heat pumps, Fisher & Paykel creates a one-stop-electrification shop, thinking fast and slow on World EV Day, Tesla gets into the train game, Vessev's beautiful boat, Toyota's white elephant, and one positive aspect of keeping up with the Joneses.
Read moreDownloadIf you've got questions about our recent report showing the almost $100 billion electrification opportunity in front of New Zealand, then Lou Aitken probably got the answers at the Investing in Tomorrow launch event. Check out the panel discussion with Dr Saul Griffith, Reserve Bank chief economist Paul Conway and Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment chief economist Geoff Simmons.
Read moreDownloadMike Casey lays out Rewiring Aotearoa's argument for a regulatory change that would allow customers with solar and batteries to compete fairly with large generators, something we call symmetrical export tariffs. It's important to note that these are not subsidies or rebates. "They simply ensure customers get a true reflection of the value they provide to the electricity market. They are no more a rebate than the half-hourly prices in the wholesale market, paid to generators for their output ... The current pricing structure is compromising New Zealand’s delivery of a secure and affordable power system; it fails to recognise that peak demand could be reduced with the help of household batteries; it perpetuates the idea that we need to spend tens of billions to upgrade our poles and wires to cope with that peak demand; and it is stifling demand for solar and batteries among New Zealanders because their true value is not being accurately reflected in the price paid for export."
Read moreDownload"The only way we can begin to hedge our businesses against higher spot prices is by beginning to generate our own electricity," says Mike Casey. Read about how he hopes to turn his energy bill into a revenue stream with the help of solar and batteries that can generate electricity cheaply, and store it to sell when it's expensive.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa thinks customers need to be considered part of the energy infrastructure and three academics from AUT agree, arguing that a more decentralised system could play an important role in a more resilient system. As they say: "By focusing only on solar farms, we are using new technologies in an old-fashioned way, by centralising power generation in certain locations, in the hands of a few companies."
Read moreDownloadThe recently announced Energy Competition Taskforce has announced "two packages of work that collectively aim to encourage investment in new generation, bolster competition and provide more opportunities for consumers to manage their own electricity use and costs" and said it is "serious about creating change". Of particular interest to Rewiring Aotearoa was the section about better rewarding customers to "encourage greater uptake of things like time-of-use pricing plans, rooftop solar and batteries, and demand response by industrial firms," as EA chair Anna Kominik said in a press release. This is positive and aligns with what we've been asking for and what we outlined in our symmetrical export tariffs paper, but it is important to note that these are not rebates. This is just cost-reflective two-way pricing that levels the playing field between small and large generators. As Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says: "To date, every home giving energy back has been getting a bad deal. We believe their contribution to the system should be accurately priced and, as we said when the taskforce was announced, we want a level playing field, not just a slightly less uneven playing field." Casey says this pricing also needs to be mandatory otherwise the EA risks further delay to keeping bills down and building a more secure and resilient energy system. "We talk about guaranteeing investment signals on the big end of town. How about the average Kiwi got some guaranteed investment signals that are fair?"
Read moreDownloadOne News has covered the Investing in Tomorrow report, which shows that big household savings from electrification add up to big national savings. As Dr Saul Griffith says about the $29 million day that New Zealand could save if we swapped out fossil fuel machines for electric equivalents and ran them off renewable electricity from the grid, rooftop solar and batteries: "It's nice to be able to make the carrot that large because I think it focuses the policy mind on how to get there."
Read moreDownload'New Zealand can't afford not to electrify,' says Q&A's Jack Tame in the introduction to a story about Rewiring Aotearoa's new paper Investing in Tomorrow. He talks to Dr Saul Griffith about the savings at a household level, the $29 million a day electrification opportunity for the country as a whole, the economic slam dunk of rooftop solar and why the Government should be looking to give favourable finance to customers who can become part of our energy infrastructure.
Read moreDownloadSaul Griffith speaks to Bernard Hickey on When the Facts Change podcast about the new paper Investing in Tomorrow. As it summarises: "Saul Griffith helped change the world a couple of years ago when he and a couple of "tech bro" mates convinced Joe Biden to rewrite the Democrats’ Green New Deal and pitch it as an Inflation Reduction Act to rewire America’s economy with renewable energy. Saul makes a pitch for Aotearoa to do the same, but much cheaper and much faster, instead of the government’s current plan to spend $1 billion importing gas over the next couple of years. He presents Rewiring Aotearoa’s paper on The Electrification Opportunity, which estimates cheaper power costs worth $10.7 billion per year by 2040.
Read moreDownloadWe've filled our electric boots this week with more good news for EV seekers as the upfront costs keep dropping, the EV that has been around the world about 50 times, grid-scale batteries are on the rise and the world's biggest one is equal to about 130 million laptop batteries, restaurants in New Orleans are being given solar panels to help the community out in case of hurricanes, and a spicy electricity-related letter to the editor.
Read moreDownloadAs we've said before, it's not just us arguing for more rooftop solar. A number of academics are onboard and Kevin Trenberth, Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the US and honorary academic at the Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, is one of them. As he says: "Germany has about 20 percent less sunshine than New Zealand, but 3.7 million solar systems generating 61 gigawatts of power (12 percent of their total energy supply). In New Zealand, there is an estimated 200 MW from rooftop solar, and all solar (not just rooftop) provides under 1 percent of New Zealand’s power. A major reason for the very low uptake of solar in New Zealand is the absence of incentives and effectively, penalties against investing in it." We're doing our best to create incentives and remove penalties by pushing for symmetrical export tariffs, where a customer is paid the same amount for any electricity that is exported from the premises at peak times as they are charged for any power they consume at peak times. If we level the playing field, customers can become part of the energy system.
Read moreDownloadFarmer's Weekly editor Bryan Gibson talks to Mike Casey on the InFocus podcast about paying back the capital on a recent solar investment in five years, the changes that need to be made to the 'braided river' that is our national grid to incentivise more farms to become power plants, and the strangeness of the current system that sees fossil fuels sent from Saudi Arabia, to Singapore and then onto boats and trucks, when we could be powering our electric farm machines directly from the farm.
A cornucopia of electrification optimism this week, with Ubco inking a big deal in Australia, FTN Motion also getting set to head across the Tasman, Octopus Energy's founder Greg Jackson on the new champ in energy town, David Wallace-Wells looks at what we will do with all our 'free' solar power, and Germany shows how loosening up permits for renewables has led to a huge and rapid boost of energy supply.
Read moreDownload"Combined, New Zealand homes and businesses are currently spending around $55 million every day or $20 billion per year on fossil fuels, most of which are imported," says Saul Griffith. "Approximately two-thirds of New Zealand’s total energy needs are met by burning these expensive fossil fuels. But this country is one of the first in the world to cross an ‘electrification tipping point’, where the cost of buying and financing electric machines is cheaper over the long run than using fossil fuels. That leads to savings for individual households and it could lead to huge savings for the country as a whole.”
Read moreDownloadAugust 28: Rewiring Aotearoa has welcomed the announcement of a taskforce to address issues in the electricity market but says the time for investigating is over and it is now time for action.
Read moreDownload"The principle narrative of the last few decades – that we can’t afford to solve climate change – is just not true," Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey tells Ellen Rykers for the Future Proof newsletter as the organisation launches a new report outlining the economic opportunity of electrification called Investing in Tomorrow.
Read moreDownload"You can actually now demonstrably show that for large sections of every economy in the world, it is now cost effective to solve climate change – and that's a pretty radical new idea," says Saul Griffith.
Read moreDownloadFollowing the launch of the Investing in Tomorrow report, Nine to Noon's Kathryn Ryan spoke to Dr Saul Griffith about the massive savings opportunity that electrification presents New Zealand households and the nation as a whole, the lessons we can learn from other markets and changes we need to make to our electricity system.
We’re all about the win-win-wins at Rewiring Aotearoa. And, as Dr Saul Griffith says in this presentation, electrification promises to save every New Zealander money, greatly improve the country’s books, and slash our emissions. What’s not to love?
Read moreDownloadNew research from Rewiring Aotearoa shows electrification could save New Zealand households around $29 million per day by 2040 and massively reduce the country’s emissions.
Read moreDownloadMore news, views and hullaballoos from the world of electrification, with a big event next week spelling out the economic opportunity for New Zealand; red states embracing solar and coppers embracing EVs in the US; Norway getting close to 100% on EVs; hydrogen cars sucking; Europe looking to the sky to get off Russian gas; and exciting news for e-bike entrepreneurs and explorers.
Read moreDownloadRewiring Aotearoa has been advocating strongly for rooftop solar, because it's the cheapest form of delivered electricity available to New Zealanders, unlocks a lot of the savings associated with household electrification and would help deal with dry years because there's more sun when it's not raining. So it's always nice when someone agrees with you and a piece by academics Stephen Poletti, Bruce Mountain and Geoff Bertram backs our argument up. As it says: "To alleviate the energy supply shortfalls primarily attributable to low rainfall, we suggest rapidly expanding cheap solar photovoltaics (PV), specifically rooftop solar for ordinary households. Our soon-to-be-published research suggests such capacity can be expanded quickly and cheaply... we encourage the energy minister to make the expansion of rooftop solar the top option for expanding the electricity supply and tackling the gentailer power that bedevils the market. He will almost certainly find it quicker, cheaper and more popular than importing gas.":
Read moreDownloadOur ERP2 submission outlines what we think needs to be done to improve the Government's plan to reach our climate targets, electrify the Aotearoa New Zealand economy and build a fairer future energy system for New Zealanders that saves people money and does not leave anyone behind.
Read moreDownloadBatteries in homes and businesses may seem individually small, but they could have a significant impact on the security and resilience of New Zealand’s power system. For example, 120,000 homes (or 5% of households in New Zealand) with a medium-sized battery could potentially reduce the peak electricity load by as much as our largest hydro power station, Manapouri. That’s why we’re asking the powers that be for something called symmetrical export tariffs so that customers with solar and batteries are paid fairly for their contribution, the payback time will be reduced and more people will have the confidence to invest in these technologies so the price of electricity can be reduced and we can keep the lights on in the event of an emergency.
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