Stay strong

With an increasing number of severe weather events occurring (and the potential for more large earthquakes), energy resilience is front of mind for many. And solar and batteries (including the batteries in our EVs) are playing an increasingly important role during emergencies or outages. 

Centralised options are often easy and efficient, but we are vulnerable if that is the only option and the whole system fails. In Northland, some were without power for over a week after Cyclone Tam brought down lines and replacement poles were required. In 2023, there was a 1-in-200 year event, followed merely weeks later by Cyclone Gabrielle, which was reported as the costliest cyclone in recorded history for the southern hemisphere.

‍Two Nissan Leafs kept Gee’s Pharmacy running for days during Cyclone Gabrielle. And SEANZ told stories of homes and businesses with solar and batteries getting through - and helping out when others were out of action. 

Lines companies have used recent storms to lobby for changes to regulations around trees near powerlines, which seems to have been successful, while some marae and schools are having solar and batteries installed so they can act as hubs during emergencies (and reduce their bills for the rest of the time). 

Overseas, the large outage in Spain and Portugal has people worried (and climate deniers talking about the role of renewables, given renewables supplied 100% of the country's total for the first time a few days before). Black outs are rare but they do happen and they happened a long time before wind and solar. And that’s where a bit of battery-related self-sufficiency doesn’t go astray, so it's good to see more grid-scale options being built here and overseas.

At the other end of the spectrum, we continue to hear stories of places reliant on fossil fuels for energy that are being put in jeopardy - either when the boat doesn’t turn up (like in the Chathams) or the machinery fails (like Palmerston Island in the Cooks).

Electricity outages may get more coverage, but at least we make our electricity here. It pays to remember that as a small nation a long way from anywhere else, New Zealand is basically the Chatham Islands of the world. So what do we do if the boat doesn’t turn up? 

The electric election

With the Australian election taking place tomorrow, the Labor government is proposing a 30% subsidy on installation of batteries into Australian homes. Solar Citizens showed that this would save between $10-15,000 in 15 years and reduce the price of a 10kWh battery to around $5k. For a country with so much solar, it makes so much sense.

The other side is proposing to go nuclear, which one energy analyst called ‘batshit crazy’. While the price of solar and batteries keeps dropping, "in much of the world (China being a notable exception), building new nuclear capacity has historically been expensive and slow", often as a result of soft costs and regualtory issues.

From MIT: "It’s easy to point at Plant Vogtle in the US: The third and fourth reactors at that facility began construction in 2009. They were originally scheduled to start up in 2016 and 2017, at a cost of around $14 billion. They actually came online in 2023 and 2024, and the total cost of the project was north of $30 billion."

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The Greens also proposed a policy to help landlords install solar, which would ensure a third of Australians don’t miss out on reduced power bills. Rewiring Australia is very keen on that idea, as are its New Zealand cousins.

While we applaud some of the policies coming from the top down, there’s plenty of pressure coming from the bottom up and it’s been amazing to see the 'electrify everything for everyone' message being pushed hard by over 75 community groups connected with Rewiring Australia.

With more than 15 community groups in New Zealand, we're expecting big things from them next year.

Give us your reckons

Students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US have embarked on a cool project alongside Rewiring Aoteraoa and Ara Ake to create a website focused on household electrification, using a lot of our guides and data.

The dashboard aims to motivate people to upfgrade to electric. And they’re looking for some quick survey responses to test how well it works - and to make it even better!

Complete the survey here. 

‍Slated for delivery

As we often say, sustainable products have to be cheaper AND better. Electric machines increasingly tick those boxes, but they are often more expensive upfront and much cheaper to run. Price parity isn't far away but a new car company called Slate is focusing on price, and is taking reservations on a ‘radically simple, wildly personalizable' ute.

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“A Slate is a two-door electric pickup truck that’s thoughtfully designed and engineered to be customized again and again to transform into whatever you need it to be, even an SUV. With an expected price of under US$20,000 after federal incentives, it’s radically affordable. We think it’s pretty cool looking, too.”

Check out the specs. And check out one of the best (and most unhinged car ads) we've seen in a while.

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The circle of life

Going electric is much less wasteful than burning fossil fuels because we need fewer materials and many of the materials we do need can be re-used or recycled. And a piece in The Conversation shows that old batteries will play an important role in other areas but changes are needed to make it happen.

“By 2030, around 30,000 tonnes of EV batteries are expected to need disposal or recycling in Australia. By 2040, the figure is projected to be 360,000 tonnes and 1.6 million tonnes by 2050.

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Is this a problem? Not necessarily. When a battery reaches the end of its life in a vehicle, it’s still got plenty of juice. Together, they could power smaller vehicles, houses or, when daisy-chained, even whole towns.

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For this to work, though, we need better information. How healthy are these batteries? What are they made of? Have they ever been in an accident? At present, answers to these questions are hard to come by. That has to change.”

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