The 'Electric Election': energy policies, side by side
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.
BloombergNEF says sales of combustion cars peaked in 2017 and there's no coming back, while a new study in New Zealand shows petrol vehicles were losing value more quickly than equivalent models did a decade ago; big batteries aren't just for storing electricity, they can also store heat; the story of the world's biggest electric ferry and the Australian company that made it; electric motorbikes are doing a lot of heavy lifting on emissions reduction, so why don't they get more attention?; and a new show called HallowGreen2 that tackles the energy transition "with music, humour and a hopeful message”.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kate Newton looks at why no-one is really talking about emissions as an election issue. As Mike Casey said: "The climate movement up until this point has been very, very good at creating dartboards, but terrible at providing people with darts to play the game." That's allowed for inaction, and active lobbying against climate change action from fossil fuel companies and others who stand to lose out ... The solution is "flipping it into a strong economic narrative that they can't possibly fight with".
Read moreDownloadHumans are comparative creatures and they're particularly comparative during election season. That's why we've created a rundown of all the energy-related election policies that have been announced by the parties so far.
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