News & Updates

Queenstown Lakes’ commitment to a carbon-zero visitor economy will be brought to life for business owners and tourism operators at the region’s inaugural Electrifying Queenstown business summit next month. A collaboration between Destination Queenstown and Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce, the initiative is powered by Aurora Energy, inviting local businesses to unlock the economic benefits of electrification, saving on costs and growing their business while decarbonising. "One of the most effective ways to decarbonise is by going electric. We’re excited to have experts joining Electrifying Queenstown to share knowledge and practical ideas to support the tourism and business community to shift to a sustainable future,” says Destination Queenstown Chief Executive Mat Woods.

What if you could arrange a half-day in the debating chamber when I could bring a group we’re calling the “Coalition of the Willing” to share constructive, economic solutions around the opportunities climate change and sustainability offer to Aotearoa New Zealand? Opportunities that could significantly lift our GDP, reduce billion-dollar infrastructure costs, create high-value jobs and maximise returns from our forestry and geothermal assets. 1. ReWiring Aotearoa (Mike Casey and team): Current strategy involves spending billions on infrastructure to move electricity from fast-tracked wind and solar farms, potentially doubling household costs. Casey’s fossil-fuel free, fully electric orchard in Central Otago shows how rooftop solar panels and batteries can deliver power directly to homes and businesses at a fraction of the cost, building energy resilience. The importance of this was highlighted this month. As we faced those potential power cuts, Casey’s farm actually delivered excess electricity back to the grid. While the farm uses 900 per cent more electricity than before it was electrified, most of that is self-generated or stored off the grid during off-peak times. Electricity is sold back during peak times. The annual saving on diesel is $40,000 a year. Imagine every farm in the country working like that.

Listen to Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey speak about the Electric Farms paper from 4.38.

The New Zealand Green Building Council's new report 'Closing the Gap' shows that improving buildings could save New Zealand almost $40 billion and slash emissions. "Improving the standard of new buildings and electrification are no-brainers. The sooner we get started, the more emissions we’ll avoid and the more money Kiwis, businesses and farmers will save," says Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey. Andrew Eagles, NZGBC chief executive says: "As New Zealand is bound by law and international trade agreements to reduce our emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, our buildings are a key lever." Actions explored in the report include: Staggered improvements to the building code, requiring new buildings to measuring operational and upfront carbon emissions at consenting stage from 2025, a 20% reduction in both upfront and operational emissions by 2028, 40% reduction in upfront carbon emissions and near zero energy in operation by 20230, and a 60% reduction in upfront carbon emissions and near zero energy in operation by 2034. Require all homes put up for sale or rent to have an Energy Performance Certificates by 2028, and all office buildings over 1,000sqm put up for sale or lease to have a NABERSNZ certificate from 2026. Phase out of fossil gas in homes and commercial buildings. Suggested actions include expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme to subsidise electrification of home heating from 2027, converting 25,000 homes a year. End new residential fossil gas connections from 2026. Implement a concerted programme, building on the successful replacement of coal boilers in schools and hospitals, to subsidise 10% of commercial buildings per year from 2026 to electrify.

[At 2 mins] Meanwhile plenty of Kiwis are taking energy security into their own hands, like retired chartered accountant Mike Campbell, who's moving into a retirement village where he's installed solar panels [and a battery]. "I'm producing more energy than I can actually use, even though I've got an electric car, and it goes off to the grid and it feeds somebody else." He would love to see the Government help young people install solar and battery systems. "They can help young people to reduce their power bills by a lot of money."

Yesterday I spoke to Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey and Octopus Energy NZ Chief Operating Officer Margaret Cooney about the current state of our electricity market and what could be done to fix it. Casey talked about how he earned extra money by exporting power into the grid at sky-high prices from the solar panels and batteries he installed to fully electrify his cherry orchard in Cromwell. Cooney talked about how Octopus Energy UK pays customers to reduce demand and uses automation to match supply and demand. She also talks about a way to make the market more competitive and viable for independent retailers buying from the wholesale market.

A comprehensive new research report released by EECA (the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority) unpacks where Kiwi homeowners are at with household electrification, identifying the opportunity when it comes to energy use, emissions, and running costs. The research finds over a third of key appliances (36%) in use – for cooking, heating spaces, and heating water – are over a decade old. The average for vehicles (including EVs) is even older at 14.9 years. Among those surveyed, ‘end of life’ of the current appliance was by far the main reason consumers will invest in new, with 75% of people saying this was a key motivator for them.

For a country that trades on its green brand and reputation as a trustworthy international counterpart, there is no realistic alternative but to follow through on our climate commitments. Failure to do so would have serious financial risks ... The size of this country’s NDC liability in future years will depend on how much action is taken domestically. Every extra tonne that we can reduce at a reasonable cost is one that we will not need to purchase offshore. All of this helps make the case for investment in ambitious initiatives such as accelerated electrification proposed by Rewiring Aotearoa and Recloaking Papatūānuku.

Andy broadcasted his show today LIVE from the World's First 100% Electric, Zero Fossil Fuel Orchard, with all the broadcast equipment powered by Monarch Tractor, the world's first fully electric tractor. Mike Casey, the man behind Forest Lodge Orchard, spoke about the reality of running such an enterprise and how others can follow suit.

Bucking a common misconception, New Zealanders no longer say recycling is the most effective action they can take to reduce climate pollution ... A recent study from Rewiring Aotearoa, which didn’t attempt to measure consumer sentiment towards climate-friendly actions but did examine the benefits from electrifying homes, found New Zealanders can now save between $1400 and $4700 a year by fully decarbonising their households. This makes New Zealand one of the first countries in the world to reach a “tipping point” where electrifying households is now cheaper than relying on fossil fuels. “If we use more affordable, locally produced electricity – both from our highly renewable grid and through more customer generation – to run our much more efficient electric machines, households and businesses will save money, our energy system will be stronger and more resistant to shocks, the country’s balance of payments will be billions better off because we won’t need to import as many expensive fossil fuels, and our carbon emissions will shrink,” the report found.

Mike Casey likes to call himself an “electric cherry orchardist from New Zealand"... Casey argues that rooftop solar was the gateway that enabled him to electrify his entire orchard. “It’s so significantly cheaper than a litre of diesel that it would just make absolutely no sense to buy another diesel machine once you are taking advantage of your rooftop solar.”

Electrifying your household appliances - which in most cases means ditching a gas cooktop, gas heating and hot water - can save the average household more than $1000 per year, according to data modelling recently commissioned by the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority [and Rewiring Aotearoa]. The study also found annual running cost and lifetime-cost gains from solar and swapping out a petrol or diesel vehicle for an EV - at least if you use cheaper charging at home rather than pricey public chargers, even allowing for impending road user chargers.

In the next year alone, over half a million purchase decisions will be made by New Zealanders on household appliances and vehicles, and this pattern is expected to continue. To help New Zealanders make informed decisions when they are in the market, EECA has unpacked the yearly lifetime saving opportunities - across energy, emissions and household bills, that can be achieved through choosing the most efficient, electric options. As a snapshot of running costs alone - New Zealanders could save around $1,000+ per year in energy costs. When upfront costs are included, this could save $10,000-$20,000 over a 15-year appliance lifetime. Every household is different, but the data says that for most - it pays to go electric.

Every Sunday night I sit down with my family – and about half a million other New Zealanders – to watch Country Calendar. It’s a love letter to the land and an ode to innovation and I’m always inspired by the resourceful rural folk coming up with clever ways to keep the coffers full. That is becoming increasingly difficult, however. Farmers are battling economic headwinds, global competition, synthetic substitutes and expensive – some might argue excessive – compliance, so anything that can save or make them money is about as rare as a hen’s tooth. But there is something that could potentially achieve both of those things: electricity ... The No 8 wire mentality is part of our national mythology. Early generations of farmers had to learn to be self-sufficient and make the most of the resources they had around them. What farmers have around them now is plenty of land, lots of sun and increasing demand for renewable electricity. Using and creating more electricity on NZ’s farms is in everyone’s economic and environmental interests, so let’s take a leaf out of Bill Gallagher’s book and make that No 8 wire electric.

Overall, we encourage the Commission to think beyond competition merely as a driver for innovation, to consider the outcomes from innovation for the long term benefit for New Zealanders. Rewiring Aotearoa believes one such outcome from market innovation is supporting the electrification opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand. The Commission has the opportunity to play an active role in driving this not just through the energy market, but also through the personal banking market. It is important that these functions are not seen in isolation, but as a system, to better realise the Commission's role in delivering on NZ’s emissions reduction plan, and 2050 Nationally Determined Contribution.

This Government promised relief from the rising cost of living. If it looked at the electricity sector, it might see some solutions staring them right in the face.

Forest Lodge Orchard has taken out the Norwood Farming Efficiency Award and the NZFET Innovation Award at the Otago Farm Environment Awards. "Technology and sustainability are the hallmarks of this Cromwell orchard that has grown its harvest exponentially since being developed from bare ground in 2019 ... Right from the start, owners ​​Mike and Rebecca Casey, and Euan and Rachel White have been striving to electrify all orchard methods and equipment – a goal they have achieved. They have an electric tractor, have electrified the orchard’s irrigation pump, i​nstalled New Zealand’s first electric frost–fighting fans and are developing ​​​an electric​ foliage​ sprayer​.​ In 2022, they set themselves a challenge of going completely fossil-fuel-free in the orchard. This will potentially save about​ $50k per year in energy bills ​and continues to drive greater creativity in finding or developing alternative approaches."

New Zealand is at the 'electrification tipping point', according to a new report from non-profit Rewiring Aotearoa ... CEO Mike Casey knows all about the environmental impact and economic benefit to decarbonising. Mike talks to Jesse about the [Electric Homes] report and his own journey of 'electrification' at his Cromwell property.

The evidence is clear: it's good for our pockets and for the planet, so what's stopping families and businesses from going electric? How do we address the electrification knowledge gap and other barriers that stand in the way of adopting cleaner, more affordable energy both as individuals and organisations? Bernard Hickey talks to Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey about their recent report 'Electric Homes', and how NZ is one of the first countries to reach the "electrification tipping point".

Mike Casey is the CEO of Rewiring Aoteraoa, part of an international movement to accelerate the shift to a renewable, electric-powered economy. Rewiring’s first report is all about the electric home - think rooftop solar, heat pumps, EVs and so on. But Mike is also a horticulturist and a passionate advocate for decarbonising the primary sector. He has the unique ability to win over both farmers and greenies, and politicians just love being seen in front of the electric tractor at his Forest Lodge Orchard - believed to be the world’s-first, electrified, zero-fossil fuel cherry orchard. Mike spoke to Vincent.