'This car can...' Check out our new campaign
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.
There are a lot more New Zealanders looking for EVs right now as concerns about the price and availability of fuel rises. But many of them are new to the scene. Here are some things to consider to ensure you get the right EV for your needs.
Read moreDownloadThere’s a lot of talk about what electric vehicles can’t do and plenty of myths and misperceptions that might stop people from upgrading. But the people who actually own EVs? They’re overwhelmingly sold and recent research showed that 96% of EV owners would buy another one. That's why we're launching 'This Car Can...' We want to tap into that electric enthusiasm and convince more New Zealanders who may be on the fence to start running on cheap local electrons rather than on expensive imported foreign molecules.
EV owners love all the things their cars can do - and they can do a lot of different things these days. So we're asking them to share a story about their EV experience, upload a photo and tell us what their car can do, or send in a video.
We'll add them to the campaign page and we'll use the best ones on socials and in our advocacy to show how lots of different New Zealanders are benefitting from EVs in their lives.
We've also compiled a whole heap of information on why we love EVs - from the savings to the speed off the mark and everything inbetween.
Get in behind!