'This car can...' Check out our new campaign
It's not just homes that are getting off the gas. A number of big new facilities are going all-electric, too, including the new Te Kaha / One NZ Stadium in Christchurch. As project director Kent Summerfield says, the covered 25,000 seat stadium (30,000 with the temporary seats) will run entirely on electrons, from the cooking to the heating to the ice baths to the machines required for maintenance and operation.
This makes obvious sense from an emissions reduction perspective. Christchurch City Council pushed hard for this with the stadium, but it also makes economic sense over the long-term given and it's great to see more councils making this is a requirement of any new public buildings.
The design allows for solar panels to be added in the future and there will also be charging stations for electric vehicles.
While the stadium had initially looked at buying a fossil fuel tractor to haul stuff out onto the field, in the time it's taken to be built, the technology has continued to improve and the costs have continued to fall, so it is now looking at buying an electric equivalent.
The atmosphere is going to be electric inside the stadium - and in central Christchurch - when the first game kicks off in April. And it's good to know the energy it needs will be coming from the right place.
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."
Read moreDownload
