Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
“As long as you’re reducing your reliance on fossil fuels, there’s very little room for regret.” That’s a statement we can get behind and it’s something Rhys Boswell, the operations manager at Christchurch Airport, is continuing to push for.
It might seem strange to be celebrating an airport given the aviation sector is still so reliant on fossil fuels, but the Rewiring philosophy is to electrify what you can and make the right decision when the time comes. There are not many, if any, electric equivalents available when it comes to planes, but there's plenty more that can be done in other areas.
One of the airport's biggest initiatives is the Kōwhai Park solar farm, which is located beside the airport. With around 300,000 panels, Boswell says it will be the biggest in the country and could power 30-40,000 homes. This is just phase one and it has the ability to replicate that two or three times over.
The solar farm will be providing power to the grid (and also helping to irrigate the Canterbury Plains in summer when solar production is high) but it will also provide a chunk of that generation to the airport. Part of the rationale for the deal was that it helped the airport avoid a significant cost that would have been required for an upgrade as it reached the limits of its connection.
While Gary Freedman's Electric Air plane, the Pipistrel Alpha Electro, can often be spotted at the airport, Air New Zealand is currently trialling an electric plane and the innovation continues in this space. Boswell thinks the next generation of domestic turboprop planes will be battery and sustainable aviation fuel hybrids.
There are now a number of electric ground support vehicles at the airport, from tugs to the country’s first electric fire engine. And it also has a number of electric fleet vehicles and chargers.
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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