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Introducing Bright Sparks, a new regular feature where we shine a light on some of the country's electrification heroes. First up, electric maritime innovator Fiona Bycroft.
There's a lot happening in New Zealand's electrification scene, whether it's homeowners investing in solar, batteries and EVs, volunteers setting up community groups in their region, innovators pushing the boundaries in their businesses, or decision makers doing what they can to try and speed up the inevitable transition to electric machines run on local electrons.
We want to celebrate these legends, so we're launching a new section called Bright Sparks where we share the stories of clever, committed New Zealanders who are doing their bit to make our country more electric.
Our inaugural Bright Spark is Fiona Bycroft from Naut, whose company produces systems that can be dropped into boats from 7m to more than 24m long. She and the team recently brought one down from Whangarei to show off at the three-day Electrify Queenstown conference and it was put to the test on Lake Wakatipu.
As she says in the video interview, electric vehicles are now becoming more mainstream, in part because of the early adopters who bought the vehicles and those who advocated for (and built) the infrastrucure: "I want boats to be the same. We're in those early days of tech and so really we're building the market at the moment but I'd hope in ten years time that this is what everyone is using."
We've got a long list of heroes on our list, but we're always looking for more suggestions so get in touch if you think there's someone who you think deserves a shout out.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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