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Rewiring Aotearoa's Matt Newman: "For marae, however, there aren't a huge amount of places where they could turn to unless they're engaging professional services around electrification. We know that that hasn't often been in the funding piece either. You know, funders will happily fund upgrades for marae, but they won't fund the due diligence that's necessary to support marae in making really good decisions for the long-term future."

Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey told Andrew Dickens plug-in solar is a simple process, which many countries including the US, UK, and places across Europe have made the most of. Labour's policy is similar but says changes to enable plug-in solar would be within 12 months of a government it leads taking office.

A shocking increase in the power bill for a marae that converted to solar energy has raised concerns about installers and regulation. The monthly power bill for Taranaki's Owae Marae has rocked to as much as $2000 a month, up from about $400. That's despite installing a solar system on its wharekai to save money. Matt Newman from Rewiring Aotearoa spoke to Lisa Owen about this issue and our new Electric Marae report.