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On one side there's Meridian with its massive hydro scheme and array of renewable generation. And on the other there's Warren Begley with his 'power station' out the back of Formaggio's restaurant in Christchurch. Begley, a philanthropist, environmentalist and successful restaurateur, has fully embraced the Rewiring ethos and electrified as much of his own life as possible. And now he's electrifying a few more lives through a clever car ownership scheme for staff that is powered by solar, batteries and a fair bit of trust.
He has given two of his staff a 'free' Nissan Leaf. It is guaranteed for 12 months by the seller, they pay it back at $100-125 per week, they get free energy at work, and they own a car at the end of it.
"And they've had the pleasure of driving an electric car", which is even more appealing now given how high fuel prices are.
One of the biggest users of energy is personal transport, "so if we can get young people into vehicles to understand 'what is a watt, what is a kilowatt, what is a kilowatt hour', then I think that is incredibly important."
The solar and battery set-up on and in the container can charge two cars at the same time and the 11kWh battery, which charges up in the morning before the staff arrive and is discharged into the car, is essential.
This project has "focused the mind" on how the business uses energy and how it could bring its costs down. He would love to get off LPG and onto New Zealand-made energy (over one third of LPG is imported). That is primarily for environmental reasons, but it's also because LPG is so expensive and inefficient. The big bottles in their metal cage on the side of the building have also been stolen, which is another frustration to add to the list.
Induction has come a long way and it's a great solution for home cooking, but commercial operations have different needs and the options are more limited.
Things are moving fast in that space, however, and he would love to hear from other restaurateurs who have successfully transitioned to commercial induction. Begley is a Bright Spark on a mission, a talker and a doer, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if he managed to do it.
As Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
Read moreDownload"We’ve got fuel prices climbing towards four dollars a litre. We’ve got global instability, supply lines under pressure, and once again New Zealand is sitting here — exposed. But what’s different this time…it’s the reaction."