Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
Whether big or small, it makes sense to go electric when you're building new and Parakiore, a $500 million project located on the site of an old brewery in Christchurch, is a great example of that.Parakiore will be the largest indoor sports facility and swimming complex in Australasia when it opens soon and, as Christchurch City Council's head of facilities and property Bruce Rendall says, choosing to use local electrons instead of burning molecules was about reducing emissions AND reducing the financial burden on ratepayers."We look at solutions that do both."
One of the most innovative features of the new facility is that it heats the water using wastewater, a heat exchanger and a heatpump.
All of the council's facilities are increasingly looking to use renewable energy he says, and while the main council building and art gallery have been heated using waste gas from landfill, that is coming to the end of its life soon and an electric replacement will be employed.
While large organisations like councils can negotiate good deals on power because they are such big users, he says it makes sense for public buildings to be generating their own energy and it is also looking at solar and battery solutions.
The new library and pool facility in Hornby has over 600 panels installed, generates around one quarter of the energy it needs and could save around $90,000 each year, so it will be monitoring that project closely and seeing how it can improve the financials at its other facilities.
Te Kaha, the soon-to-open covered stadium, is also fully electric and set up for solar, and it's great to see the Christchurch City Council making good decisions at the outset. Hopefully it inspires other councils and big players to explore the benefits of getting off fossil fuels.
Australia reaches a milestone in August, with more new electric cars sold than petrol cars; another new study shows EV batteries last longer than the myths have made out; Heart Aerospace sends the world's heaviest electric plane skywards; China's massive mining machine hits the dirt; and we've fully embraced heat pumps to warm the air, now they're coming for our water.
Read moreDownloadNew Zealand spends about as much on petrol and diesel as it earns exporting concentrated milk. Mike Casey says that money leaves the country, and most of it does not have to. He runs a cherry orchard in Central Otago on 21 electric machines, and a $50,000 diesel bill became a $25,000 revenue stream before financing costs. What I Asked Mike👉 How much money does New Zealand lose every year buying fuel from offshore?👉 What did it actually cost to electrify 21 machines?👉 What is the real payback period, machine by machine?👉 What can you do if you lease your building and cannot touch the roof?👉 Who should not do this?
Read moreDownloadA pinch and a punch (and a big bunch of new EVs) for the first of the month. The Rewiring gang is always pretty jazzed about the release of the new car sales numbers each month and, while the short-term stats tend to bounce around a bit, the long-term trend is clear: sales of new EVs are up by 150% year to date and sales of new petrol vehicles are down by 15% in the same period.
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