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We've seen electric cherries and electric chickens. How about electric piggies? CJ and Tim Lepper run a pig farm in Taranaki and, like a growing number of clever rural folk, they realised that solar was a slam dunk for their business.
Working with FarmGen, it installed a 1.8 megawatt system at a cost of around $1.5 million and CJ says that investment could be paid off in as little as five years.
Solar can slash bills for farmers overnight because it allows them to avoid high grid electricity costs but, with plenty of space for bigger systems, export revenue can also be significant. For them, selling a year’s worth of energy to the market at normal prices could bring in $200-250,000 each year.
It’s not just the solar that’s smart, either. The Leppers also have a system to turn the manure from 3,500 pigs into fertiliser and biogas. The biogas is sent to a 40kW generator that heats water to keep the piglets warm and Tim says it takes care of around 30% of the electricity bill.
While biogas can make sense on some farms because there’s an opportunity to turn waste into revenue, it is not a viable substitute for the gas network as there’s so little of it available and it’s more expensive than standard gas.
A proposal to let people install solar panels and other green technology using low-interest loans from their council needs to go ahead "as soon as possible", its proponents say. The government asked Local Government New Zealand to present its business case for the proposed Ratepayer Assistance Scheme (RAS) in late 2025. However, ministers still had not made any decisions about whether to go ahead with the scheme - which would let councils provide long-term loans to any homeowner who wanted to access them. That's despite growing political support from parties across the spectrum.
Read moreDownloadQueenstown, New Zealand (18 May 2026) Leading politicians debated New Zealand's energy future on the second day of Electrify Queenstown 2026 today. The sold-out session, moderated by journalist Paddy Gower, opened with speeches from Deputy Prime Minister and ACT Party Leader Hon. David Seymour, Labour Leader Rt Hon. Chris Hipkins, Energy Minister Hon. Simeon Brown, New Zealand First Co-Leader and Associate Energy Minister Hon. Shane Jones, Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick, and The Opportunities Party Leader Qiulae Wong.
Read moreDownloadDiesel generators, you're cooked! We’ve seen a few of our electric communities plug in to their EVs at small events and that's great to see, but Hamish Roberge from Tom Tom Productions in Queenstown has developed a solution that can be rolled out for bigger gigs. Roberge is currently on the job delivering the third Electrify Queenstown conference and it was during last year's conference that he was inspired to create NRG Event Batteries.
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