Mānawatia a Matariki!

The stars are playing a starring role right now (and we love a good nuclear fusion reactor in the sky at Rewiring), so enjoy the food, family and festivities today and over the weekend. If you’re in Queenstown, register for Bright Night, “a magical community glow ride and Matariki Star Trail through Te Kararo Queenstown Gardens” organised by the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator, Sustainable Queenstown and Lightfoot Initiative.

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There’s free pizza, electric hot chocolate and even 'Glow-Tato Bites' cooked by an electric car. There will also be electric car light shows and a solar-powered scooter to check out.

Welcome to the electric election

The electric election we craved when Rewiring kicked off a few years ago appears to be coming to pass: National announced its backing of the RAS a few weeks back and Labour has taken things up a notch this week with its SolarSaver policy.

As Mike Casey said in his response video, the policy - which features added finance options, grants for low and middle income homes, more EECA funding, a workforce focus and a community battery fund - has made things pretty interesting but we reckon there's more where that came from and we're looking forward to some more announcements, both from the major parties and the little guys. 

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We’re absolutely stoked that there is broad agreement across the political spectrum on the need to give better access to finance so that households can get past the higher upfront costs of electrification and start saving on their energy bills. But as we have said for a while, there’s no need to wait for the election. There’s enough support to get the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme through now so that New Zealanders can start saving sooner. 

So, to the Government, why are we waiting? 

Seeing solar sense

We’re always keen to fire up some parochialism when it comes to electrification adoption. Every year we see council comms teams kick into gear as the annual sunlight hours are announced. Taranaki is always right up there (but lagging behind when it comes to adoption at a household level) so it's good to see the New Plymouth District Council is embracing solar on its buildings.

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As it wrote:

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Two new solar power systems installed this year are already cutting bills by thousands of dollars and are expected to have paid for themselves within six years.​

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An array of 100 solar panels was installed on the roof of NPDC’s climate-controlled Archives building, in Hobson Street, in March and is expected to generate around 80,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year, equivalent to powering about 10 four-person households.​ During its first month of operation, the system generated savings of over $1,000 on the monthly power bill.​

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Another solar panel array installed on the TSB Showplace in June is expected to generate more than 30,000 kWh per year. ​ Both systems supply about 35 per cent of each building’s power over the year and are expected to pay for themselves within six years.​

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Around half of NPDC’s electricity – 6.2 gigawatt hours, about the same as 885 average four-person households – has come from the New Plymouth Airport solar farm since November last year, and the rest comes from renewable supplies.​

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Islands in the sun

Last week we featured the story of three resorts in Fiji that got off the expensive diesel and started running on solar and batteries. This week, there’s another solar success story from the Pacific via Paul Eastwood, the British High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea.

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Only around 25% of the population has access to electricity there, but a Baptist Pastor called Matt Allen is looking to change that.  

As he wrote on social:

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Matt built a faith-based international school on the outskirts of Port Moresby and then experienced the regular power outages. His monthly energy bill was also huge, running at about $2,500 and even higher when the diesel genset was running for longer. He went through a stretch of the mains power being down and the genset running for almost 6 months continuously. A very tough period financially.

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So he turned to solar and batteries. The panels on the roof of the school and forming a carport, combined with a battery array, are enough to keep the school and all staff accommodation powered for 20+ hours a day. His electricity bill has now dropped to $100 a month. He’ll soon add more panels and be entirely self-sufficient.

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Seeing the potential, Matt started a business supplying solar PV and batteries. Working with a few preferred installers he has completed projects across the country. The profits are entirely channelled back into the school. How cool is that!”

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Fly the friendly skies

We’ve focused on Kea Aerospace before, and we’re excited about the potential of electric (and, in some cases, solar-powered) flight. The Kea Atmos Mk1b reached the stratosphere last year, “flying for over eight hours at more than 56,000 feet, powered entirely by the sun.” And it recently took some stunning images from 42,000 feet up. 

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Conducted in partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the mission demonstrates Kea’s ability to capture and deliver imagery in near real time. The flight took place in New Zealand, south of Banks Peninsula, within Tāwhaki Special Use Airspace, with operations coordinated from Kea Aerospace’s Christchurch headquarters and payload partners supporting live from Germany.

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Extra points for using an electric Audi for lift off. 

Cat on a hot toast roof

We’re going to need a lot more electricity if we're going to electrify all the things. Perhaps we need to think outside the box? 

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