The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
It's quiet. It's comfy. And it's fast. Those are the things Sky Ryan loves about the Deepway electric truck, which recently dropped off 123 boxes of cherries to all our MPs as part of The Great Electric Cherry Migration. Her dad Jamie is the general manager of Etrucks, a company bringing lots of big electric kit into the country, and when we talked to her the pair were about to embark on a roadtrip back to Auckland after a successful stint in Parliament grounds. Understandably, she was most looking forward to the multiple ice cream stops along the way and we're pleased to report she got two triple-scoopers.
To many of the young'uns we deal with, cleaner, cheaper electric machines that are run with locally-made energy makes much more sense than smoky machines that are run with imported energy. Baselines shift over time. What's entirely normal for the younger generation may be a confronting technology shift for those living through it. We reckon electric transport is inevitable. But for the benefit of Sky and other kids like her, we hope this transition picks up speed, because we need to do all we can for them.
Everyone is rocking on down to Electric Avenue today (this one online, not that other small one in Hagley Park in Christchurch), so let's ride the lightning: profits and electricity prices keep going up, as panels keep going down; a new paper puts a number on how much more homes with solar sell for; we're bottling things up with big and small batteries and they are eating into gas in Australia and California; transport emissions drop across the Tasman as a result of Government EV incentives, while HEB Construction electrifies its fleet; electrons are coming from above in China; and Xpeng announces the arrival of a crazy looking electric van/aircraft carrier.
Read moreDownloadWarren G and Nate Dogg said it best when they said: 'Regulators, mount up!' - and this week, they have.In a rare joint open letter, three different regulators - EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority - have basically told the lines companies to pull their socks up and make the most of ‘non-network solutions’ (AKA stop building more expensive poles and wires and start looking at customers and new technology as part of the solution!).
Read moreDownload"The LNG announcement from earlier this month has set the stage: electricity, and the energy sector more broadly, is set to be a major election issue this year. Casey has compared electricity to telecommunications, an area where services have become much cheaper in the last decade with technology advancing. “There are supply challenges for the grid and natural gas, and increasing pressure to find sustainable alternatives as reliance on fossil fuels becomes less viable,” he wrote in a Newsroom piece earlier this month, heralding the “electric election”.
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