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Vessev has been turning heads with its beautiful electric hydrofoiling boats in New Zealand and it will soon be turning heads in Northern Ireland as it has just received its first international order for an 11-person VS-9 from an eco tourism resort.
As CEO Eric Laakmann says, boats are basically snow ploughs, so it is not just about adding more power or more batteries to get through the water; it's about making the boats more efficient and taking the hull out of the water. Reducing the surface area is the solution to that.
The increased efficiency of hydrofoiling means the cost to operate is 90% lower than diesel. And it's a lot more comfortable for the passengers as well. With over 30 million boats in the world, almost all of them running on fossil fuels, there should be many more orders where that came from.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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