EV Salary Boost: it's a pay rise you can drive!
We keep seeing examples of farmers taking energy into their own hands, saving money and increasing their resilience and Tim Campbell of Ernest Energy is one of the people helping them do it down south.
At Clover Milk Dairies in Hedgehope, his company has installed a 75kW array on some unproductive land and it's in a relatively unique configuration.
"It was a hedgerow that needed to be knocked down, so essentially we've used that land quite nicely between the main cow lank and main tanker track."
The hot water cylinders all operate during the middle of the day - something we recommend all homes with solar do - the effluent system is now also used between milkings, and the solar also plays a role when it comes to keeping the milk cool.
While the farm doesn't yet have batteries, they can be added later. But McPherson Dairies down the road has installed 100kwH of battery storage that can charge up on cheap night rates or solar during the day and discharge when milking and for cooling.
Campbell says the solar and battery set up there will take around six and a half years to pay off, including borrowing costs and claiming depreciation on the asset.
"But the resilience piece is the hard part to value."
Along with taxes, education and health, energy is proving to be a big talking point in the run up to the election .. which is now 33 days away. All the political parties have released some energy policies .. and while they're quite varied in their approaches .. the main focus seems to be bringing down the cost of electricity for us consumers. Our first guest would like electric transport to also be part of the conversation .. he's calling for a 'great EV comeback' and has some ideas about how to make it happen. Mike Casey, Rewiring Aotearoa Chief Executive joins Jesse.
The electric election continues apace! National announced its 'Electrify NZ 2.0 plan' last week and Mike Casey joined Andrew Dickens on Newstalk ZB to talk about the potential for peer-to-peer trading of energy, the roll of solar in lowering power prices, data centres needing to bring their own generation, and the likelihood that all this talk will turn into action.
