The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
“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.
"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.