The energy of youth

Schools and other public buildings like marae are starting to see the benefits of solar - and the rest of the country could benefit too. 

Douglas Park primary school in Masterton has been on a mission to show what’s possible with solar and installed its first panels in 2008. And the appropriately named Simon Watts, the Minister of Climate Change, visited the school recently. 

As The Post reported: “The school now had 60 panels over two arrays which across the year generated on average about 40% of its power, and up to 80% in terms one and four.” 

While it sounds like a no-brainer and there is a scheme already running, there are currently quite a few barriers to schools that have seen the light. The minister said he was “interested in exploring how obstacles to implementing local generation projects could be minimised”. 

“Where possible government departments or local regulations should make it easy for schools to do the right thing.” 

Rewiring Aotearoa plans to hold him to that (and to make sure it's easier for anyone with a roof to do it). Not only will schools see the savings, the kids get to learn about the benefits of solar. And the more they leanr, the more they'll talk about it with their parents and the more electric homes we’re likely to have in the future. 

We covered the Wairarapa marae that has installed solar as part of a community resilience project and schools can also play an important role in this regard. And just as schools match well to the solar window, electric school buses are starting to be used in pilot projects to feed back into the grid.  

As Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey wrote recently, “solar on the school roof frees up money for vital spending within the school ... Every school in the country should have solar. Adding batteries would mean they become the resilience hubs for our communities too.”

Wairarapa appears to be leading the charge on the electrification front and anyone who wants to learn more needs to get themselves to the Electrify Wairarapa event on Nov 22nd-23rd. 

The solar surge continues

The world is close to hitting its renewable targets, as an IEA report recently found. It's one of the rare climate bright spots and solar is a big part of it. 

As detailed by The Atlantic: 

The world is on track to install 29 percent more solar capacity this year than it did the year before, according to a report from Ember. “In a single year, in a single technology, we’re providing as much new electricity as the entirety of global growth the year before,” said Kingsmill Bond, a senior energy strategist at RMI, a clean-energy nonprofit.

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Aside from the steadily dropping price, one of the best things about solar is that it’s modular, so it can be one panel or thousands of panels in a solar farm. The report says 40 percent of the growth comes from people installing panels on their own homes and businesses. 

The world’s use of fossil fuels is already plateauing (the U.S., for its part, hit its peak demand for fossil-fuel energy way back in 2007). Energy demand is still rising, but renewables are stepping in to make up the difference. “The really interesting debate now,” Bond said, “is actually: When do we push fossil fuels off the plateau? And from our numbers, if solar keeps on growing this way, it’s going to be off the plateau by the end of this decade.”

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Even with governments that might not be prioritising climate, the economic argument is impossible to ignore and the growth is “unstoppable”. 

There are plenty of big brains working on making solar even cheaper and more efficient, including University of Canterbury (UC) Professor Tom Bennett, who received $941,000 in Marsden Funding over three years for his research into innovative high-strength hybrid glass. 

Professor Bennett, who recently joined UC’s School of Physical and Chemical Sciences from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, is an expert in creating new hybrid glass materials using a mineral called perovskite.

“I’m excited by my arrival in Aotearoa and really looking forward to working with the team here. The support of this grant is excellent news because I believe this project holds great potential for renewable energy and reduced energy consumption here and internationally,” said Professor Bennett.

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‍Pure as the driven snow

Many of our skifields rely heavily on diesel, but there are some positive signs of change, from electric gondolas that could reduce the need for car trips to hybrid groomers and electric snowmobiles.

A company called Vidde (the Norwegian word for mountain plateau) claims to be “pioneering the world's first electric sustainable terrain vehicles. It's not just a thrilling ride; it's an eco-conscious vehicle. Our innovative design drastically reduces CO2 emissions per kilometer, making it a leader in sustainability.”

The curent options may be speedy, but they're also smelly and noisy, so a cleaner, quieter machine will be a welcome change up the mountain.

Vidde also has a big focus on creating a more circular product, which, more broadly, is a big opportunity for the shift to renewable energy.

On the road again

As the amazing YouTube series Coal Miners Driving Teslas shows, sometimes the best way to change your view on something is to experience it for yourself. If you’re EV curious (or you're keen on taking home one of the prizes) and you're in Christchurch on Nov 23-24, get down to the Take Charge EV expo at the Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre. 

As Stuff reported: “The two-day expo will showcase more than 20 electric vehicles from a range of different manufacturers, including BMW, BYD, Mini, Cupra, Kia, MG, Omoda, Porsche, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo.” 

The Kia EV3 will be on display for the first time to the public at the event, and MG will also show its new Cyberster. 

If you're in the market for a new car right now, or you're thinking about an upgrade soon, keep these numbers in mind.

Electricity is the cheapest fuel and rooftop solar is the cheapest electricity. That means fuelling your electric car with the sun is the petrol price equivalent of around 30c per litre vs. around 60c per litre for grid electricity.

Over a year, an EV charged with solar is almost $3,000 cheaper to run than a petrol car (not including the upfront costs).

And while the price of grid electricity and fossil fuels are expected to rise, the sun never puts its prices up. 📉 The higher upfront costs of EVs are still a barrier, but when you include those it's almost $20,000 cheaper than a petrol car over 15 years.

Price parity with fossil fuel vehicles is expected in the next few years, which will make the economic argument even stronger. And there's no argument when it comes to emissions.

Check out our driving guide to see how much you could save and how to make it happen.

‍Electric experimentation

Where would we be without tinkerers like John Howe? 

This video looks at how the engineer from Maine developed everything from a solar powered electric tractor to a solar chainsaw. More power to him.