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Bernard Hickey laments the LNG decision, asks a question we've been asking, and speaks with energy analyst Larry Blair.
The decision didn’t include the option of using that $2.7 billion up-front to pay for grid-scale, residential and commercial solar panel and battery capacity that would allow the lakes to remain full in a dry year. That amount would buy the equivalent of 2 Gigawatts worth of generation and storage, which is the equivalent of about four Benmore Dams worth and enough to power 2.5 million households for a year.
Instead, the LNG terminal may never be used but will have to be paid for annually, and the benefits in the counterfactual put forward by the Government in its fact sheet are dependent on lower wholesale prices (than would otherwise be the case) being passed on by gentailers to consumers.
Mike Casey said the Government couldn’t create cheap electricity with expensive fuel.“The Government is basically forcing New Zealanders to invest in an LNG terminal and hoping prices might go down eventually. You cannot make cheap electricity with expensive fuels and LNG is one of the most expensive fuels there is. We don’t like burning Indonesian coal. So why replace it with expensive Australian gas? This decision just locks us into another expensive overseas dependency.” Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey via a statement
Fisher & Paykel takes the crown for the country's biggest rooftop solar array - and more big businesses that start generating, the better; Octopus and Fletcher Living start a Zero Bills experiment in Canterbury; Australia shows that batteries can help the grid even if they're not tied to a virtual power plant; energy expert Michael Lieberich has a look under the hood of New Zealand's energy system and says 'don't panic'; Saul Griffith documentary looks at his electrification vision and the impact of community; and FTN Motion's Streetdog gets a seal of approval from Brisbane.
Read moreDownload"Advice that government officials tried to redact shows there is "low need" for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility. A newly unredacted version of modelling commissioned by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) was released to RNZ following a complaint to the Ombudsman. It shows that in some scenarios, no LNG is needed at all."
Mike Casey: "They're going with the cheaper option and ultimately then outgrowing that solar system very, very quickly … they'll get a solar installer who will ask for their power bills over the last few months and they'll design a solar system that's optimised for return for that particular movement in time but then you add more electricity demand."
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