Sunny side up

Another week, another wide array of solar news.

Sods were turned this week on what is set to be the country’s biggest solar farm, the Tauhei Solar site near Te Aroha. It will span 182 hectares and produce “enough renewable electricity to supply the equivalent of approximately 35,000 New Zealand homes and businesses”.

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We’ve seen some great research on the roofspace that’s available in Auckland from AUT, and Lion is charging its glasses after installing one of the country’s biggest rooftop solar systems on its factory. There are 2,424 solar panels at its flagship brewery, The Pride in East Tamaki and it is hoped it will provide 14.4 per cent of the brewery’s electricity needs per year – equivalent to approximately 228 average households.

The Trusts Arena is also embracing the sun and estimates it will reduce its energy consumption by 38% with 296 solar panels, 170kW peak capacity and advanced battery storage. The new panels are funded through support from Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, Auckland Council’s cultural and economic development arm.

As chair Katie Bhreatnach says: “This initiative isn’t just about energy savings—it strengthens our ability to support Civil Defence Emergency Management in times of crisis, just as we did during the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.” 

Many marae are also getting solar installed for these resilience reasons. 

While we’re obviously fans of more renewable energy, it’s always important to remember that solar flowing through the grid will be more expensive for customers than solar on your roof. The energy you create at home, at work, or on the farm is likely to be the cheapest energy available to you. And with the way battery prices are dropping, this is making solar and storage an increasingly compelling investment. 

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In overseas solar news, an Ember report shows that Saudi Arabia was one of the biggest importers of solar panels from China last year (mostly for big solar farms in the desert), alongside Pakistan (mostly for small-scale distributed generation). Just as Texas is a big solar state, it seems big fossil fuel producers can see there’s an opportunity to embrace the cheapest energy ever produced by humans. 

Put it in storage

While EV sales remain fairly flat in New Zealand, they’re up 31% in Europe this year and a new charging hub called Instavolt in the UK was at capacity just four days after launching. 

As the founder Delvin Lane said on Linkedin, all 44 bays on site were in use simultaneously.

“Why is this important? Because grid constraints is something I often see referenced as a barrier to progress, when it comes to the growth of EV infrastructure. With our site at Winchester, we’ve shown exactly what can be achieved through innovation and the deployment of the right technologies. Through a combination of solar PV and battery storage, the site is capable of meeting the charging needs of all 44 vehicles, with just a sub 1MW grid connection. And even on a very overcast day (because yes, solar generates in all conditions).” 

In New Zealand, Meridian’s new Springs Junction charging site uses similar battery technology to overcome the grid constraints in that area. 
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As EVDB wrote: 

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Springs Junction is an incredibly remote location with very limited energy available during the day. A charger connected to the grid was never going to be an option. Meridian knew Springs Junction was a crucial stop for EV drivers, so they had to get creative!

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Here's the clever part: the BESS units charge overnight when there is less energy demand from the grid, then supply energy to the chargers during the day. Since this site is battery-operated, drivers are limited to the amount of energy stored in the BESS units. For now, charging is not guaranteed.

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Before you hit the road, make sure to check if you can charge at zerocharging.co.nz/sj to see the most up-to-date energy availability. This information gets updated every 5 minutes. And remember, only take what you need to keep the energy flowing for everyone.

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At the other end of the charging spectrum, following the news that BYD had found a way to charge its top-range EVs in about the same time it takes to fill up with petrol, fellow Chinese car maker Zeekr has trumped it with a 1.2MW charger that will be shown off in April. 

Hot rod

We covered the arrival of the solar-powered scooter, Lightfoot, a few months back, and now the long-awaited solar-powered car Aptera has taken its first road trip. 

As Top Gear reported: “The Aptera Hermes – which co-CEO Steve Fambro identifies as the carmaker’s track-testing vehicle – covered over 300 miles [480km] on ‘a single charge’ cruising Route 66, with a whole 20 of those precious miles [32 km] coming from rays of that famous daytime star. Aptera says it wasn't an official range test, and that the solar tech peaked at 520Wh while in motion.”

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While there isn’t enough surface area on cars to get all the required energy they need through solar, this electric car shows solar can certainly help give it a boost. 

Up in the air, innovators are also producing (very light) planes like the Zephyr that could feasibly travel forever if they stay in the sun. 

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Phone home

Incumbents always try to cling on in the face of new technology, but eventually they need to embrace it if they want to survive. We saw it with the horse and cart industry when the car came out and, as this story details, we saw it with the telecommunications sector when the internet arrived. 

These companies tried hard to stop internet calling even though it would be cheaper for customers, because calling was where they made all their money. And it feels like there is a fair bit of overlap with the energy sector todayas solar grows in popularity (and particularly with the distribution businesses that charge us to use the poles and wires). 

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Like the telco market back then, energy prices remain high despite technological advances. Customers (and some regulators) are asking why that’s the case, and there is lots of disruptive technology like solar, batteries and electric cars that are changing long-held assumptions. 

There was a time when it cost $7.95 an hour for very slow dial up internet while Telecom made most of its money through voice calls and data products over its copper phone network. Now, consumers can get unlimited data, calls and texts on their smartphone for a relatively small monthly fee. 

In the past, to get internet access, you needed an expensive modem that you plugged into the side of your computer. Now it’s called a sim card and it costs a few cents. The speed of the internet is maybe 30,000 times faster than it was 20 years ago and the price for that speed and data is much lower.

Imagine your current energy bill divided by that much. That’s maybe 1c per month for the average household. That is about how much more value has been created for the communications consumer in the last 20 years than the energy consumer due to technology change, regulation and competition, and changing consumer behaviour.

A low-cost, low-emissions electrified future is what we’re pushing for at Rewiring. It might not be too far away.  

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