Don't listen to Old Man Gas. Ditch LNG. Support New Zealand-made energy!
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.
Old Man Gas will be featuring in a few newspapers and billboards this week discussing the proposed LNG import terminal. Not surprisingly, he has his justifications, but they don't stack up. It is a multi-billion dollar tax on Kiwis that many experts and sector players think is unnecessary.
Read moreDownload"The sentiment around making the electricity market fairer and cheaper for customers is great, but there's still something missing." That's Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey's summary of Act's energy policy announcement today.
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