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“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.
Lines companies are watering down the new incentives they must pay out for households that supply power to the network at peak times through solar and battery systems, jeopardising the effectiveness of the scheme, advocates say. Last week, Newsroom reported that most retailers are not passing on the full value of these peak-time battery rebates from lines companies to consumers, raising concerns the policy won’t have its intended impact. Rewiring's Josh Ellison says "it is clear tipping the scales on behalf of their own profit incentive.”
Read moreDownloadOnce you've electrified your own life, we suggest you electrify someone else's life. Mike Casey has managed to convince a lot of people to do that, including his parents, but his dad Simon Casey has taken things up a notch recently by buying 648 panels for his lifestyle block in the Wairarapa.
Read moreDownloadWe're really trucking along this week as Foodstuffs goes electric; Etrucks' Ross Linton crunches the numbers with the current prices and says there's never been a better time to get an electric truck; the New Zealand Trucking Association says we should be running on New Zealand-made energy; Australia - the world's biggest importer of diesel - sees demand for electric trucks rise as price parity is reached and shows that electric long-distance freight is possible; legacy automakers are seeing this fuel crisis as existential (and Mike Casey picked the petrol car hot potato scenario last year); dirty ol' diesel generators might be on the outer as battery solutions for festivals and conferences come into play; a potential cultural tipping point as Daniel Craig backs luxury Chinese EV brand Denza; and you've heard of Ranger Anxiety but how about Ramxiety?
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