EV Salary Boost: it's a pay rise you can drive!
Roger Robson-Williams owns 20% of New Zealand's electric tractor fleet. That sounds impressive, until you learn there are only five of them. But, like his fellow electric tractor enthusiast Mike Casey, he's on a mission to change that by providing a bit of inspiration and information.
Roger works "at the intersection of sustainability leadership and lived practice" and, alongside his partner Melissa, is regenerating some native bush and growing food on an eight hectare farm in North Canterbury.
He says it's helpful to have a tractor for that kind of work, but it's also incoherent to be burning diesel given the sustainability focus. So, with the help of Loxley Innovation, he retrofitted an old Kubota.
LOT-e1 (pronounced 'Lottie' and short for Little Orange Tractor, electric, number 1) can be charged mostly on homegrown solar energy and while it's a small tractor designed for a small bit of land, he says it provides a proof of concept and shows that you can be productive without diesel.
With two-way charging, he says the tractor can also run the house (or, at the Electrify Nelson expo, cook a few bao buns) and, given a tractor sits idle for 90- 95% of the time, it makes sense for it to power something else with its big battery.
As more and more larger machines come out with electric options and as the diesel price keeps bouncing around and putting farmers under pressure, it's looking likely that the electric tractor fleet will grow, as will the number of farmers producing their own energy to run them.
Along with taxes, education and health, energy is proving to be a big talking point in the run up to the election .. which is now 33 days away. All the political parties have released some energy policies .. and while they're quite varied in their approaches .. the main focus seems to be bringing down the cost of electricity for us consumers. Our first guest would like electric transport to also be part of the conversation .. he's calling for a 'great EV comeback' and has some ideas about how to make it happen. Mike Casey, Rewiring Aotearoa Chief Executive joins Jesse.
The electric election continues apace! National announced its 'Electrify NZ 2.0 plan' last week and Mike Casey joined Andrew Dickens on Newstalk ZB to talk about the potential for peer-to-peer trading of energy, the roll of solar in lowering power prices, data centres needing to bring their own generation, and the likelihood that all this talk will turn into action.
