The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
The idea of sharing excess energy with your community has long been a dream of solar and battery enthusiasts and that idea is starting to blossom. Microgrids have been proven to work in remote Australian regions; some marae in New Zealand are helping to reduce bills for people in their communities; Kāinga Ora has successfully tested the concept of solar sharing in social housing; and Bright Spark Tama Toki is attempting to bring the idea to life on his home island of Aotea / Great Barrier.
Aotea has no power grid, but what it does have is a strong sense of community, a willingness to share resources and a need for self-sufficiency, so Toki has developed a small peer-to-peer network of homes with solar and batteries to test the concept. The cheapest electricity you can generate is on your own roof, and the second cheapest should be from your neighbour's roof. And when you add batteries into the equation, it makes that energy more useable when it's most needed.
Toki, who is also the founder of successful skincare brand Aotea, is showing how modern technology can improve energy security and reduce energy poverty. And just as New Zealand could be a demonstration project for the world to follow, Aotea could be a demonstration project for other off-grid islands to follow.
Rewiring Aotearoa is in favour of universal Road User Charges as we believe it will address an artificial market distortion for vehicles that is not in New Zealand’s economic, fuel security, or resilience interests. Here's what we told the Select Committee.
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Read moreDownloadOur Political Power series aims to show that going electric is good for everyone, no matter where you sit on the political sprectrum. Whether you're looking to lower costs, reduce emissions or increase resilience, it increasingly makes sense at an individual, community and country level and ACT's Todd Stephenson, who bought an electric Jeep around one year ago and built his new home in Queenstown to run on electrons, is a good example of that.
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