A new study claims that by fitting your home out with solar panels and swapping to an EV, you can save $3000 a year. The savings gap between electric homes and cars and fossil fuelled homes and cars has doubled in two years as energy prices have increased and the price of solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other appliances has fallen. CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa Mike Casey told Mike Hosking that, 'Solar on the roof charging an EV is the cheapest overall. So it's kind of one step at a time is what we're advising most people.' He says more Kiwis should be thinking about a gradual switch to solar power.
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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