News & Updates

The Post gives readers a rundown of the inaugural conference and expo Electrify Wairarapa, which hopes to "break people out of the status quo and explore new technology when making business and domestic decisions".

Wairarapa 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.

We'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.

Christian Judge, who is leading the charge in his region through Electrify Kāpiti, explains why trusted community members are so important when it comes to household electrification.

Our rooftops are largely designed to shelter us, writes Mike Casey in The Post. But they could be doing much more than that. So why is New Zealand's rooftop solar adoption low? And what can be done to speed it up?

A 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.

New 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.

Government's proposed changes will help bring down costs and rapidly accelerate the adoption of solar and batteries.

We'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.

A 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.

Put 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.

We’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. 

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.

RNZ'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.

Gather 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.

Mike 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.

In 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).

Rewiring 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."

Dr. 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."