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Electrification is our jam at Rewiring Aotearoa. And Electric Avenue is where we spread it. This week, reducing costs and connecting the community through solar panels and batteries at marae, the electrification excitement brewing in the rural sector, why solar roofs might take over from solar panels, how your first EV could be the last car you ever need, and how the best new car could be an old car.
Shining lights
As our Electric Homes and Electric Farms reports have clearly shown, rooftop solar and batteries can bring costs down for households, farms and communities while also reducing emissions. And the Kia Whitingia project is an amazing example of that.
Five marae in Manawatū have taken a leaf out of Maui’s book and captured the sun with solar panels and two other marae are set to follow suit. Te Tikanga marae is also home to New Zealand’s first community-owned battery, which is made from reused Leaf car batteries (similar to the EV charging project we showcased last week from Counties Energy)
As Stuff reported, this set-up means the marae can provide power to more than 15 homes in the community.
“Kia Whitingia’s data showed it had lowered connected households’ power bills by about 20% and had allowed energy trading at prices below market rates.”
Additional income from the energy trading platform, developed by Our Energy, flows into a community fund and the whole project is helping to strengthen community connections.
“The fusion of technology and tikanga exemplifies the Manaaki economy.” And that's exactly what Rewiring Aotearoa believes an electrified future can be.
Rural roundup
Fieldays is always a great opportunity to launch new products aimed at the rural sector, and there was plenty of excitement about some of the new electric kit on offer.
There haven’t been a lot of options for farmers when it comes to electric utility vehicles, but BYD announced its new plug-in hybrid ute, the Shark 6, and Boson Motors USA announced its all-electric off-road light utility vehicle the LX40.
Things are moving fast in this sector and when the kids sitting on Forest Lodge Orchard's electric Monarch tractor are old enough to run their own farms, diesel options might not even be available. Electric machines are so much cheaper to run, have much lower emissions and can be filled up with energy generated from farmers' sheds. Get in behind!
Driven to distraction
Sticking with driving, there’s always plenty of innovation to report in the passenger EV space.
In New Zealand, the growth rate for EV sales may have dipped after the Government incentives came off, but as climate writer Robinson Meyer says, it should be seen as more of a slowdown in the long-term growth rate, rather a drop in demand. As he said in this great podcast with Derek Thompson: “Internal combustion engine cars, classic gasoline-powered cars, their sales peaked seven years ago. They’re done. We’re just fighting about how fast EVs are taking over.”
Global forecasts show EVs could be the same price as internal combustion engine cars by 2026 and maybe our roads could be chargers. In Indiana, a pilot project has just kicked off where they’re building an electrified highway.
And maybe “the first EV you buy could be the last car you ever need to purchase.”
“There are certain technologies that are coming down the pipeline that will get us toward that million-mile EV,” Scott Moura, a civil and environmental engineer at UC Berkeley, told The Atlantic. That many miles would cover the average American driver for 74 years.
Onwards and upwards
Adding solar panels to your existing roof is generally a good option if you want to reduce your energy costs and research from Australia, which is way ahead on the solar journey, suggests that only around 5% of homes are unsuitable. Improved efficiency means panels can also go on roofs that don't face north or are slightly shaded. But if you’re building, why not cut out the middleman and get a roof made of solar panels? Grand Designs showcased an example of the UK’s first passive house premium and its amazing solar roof.
And smart energy company Goodwe is also exploring the potential of solar roofs, as this agrivoltaic solution shows.
But why stop at your roof? If you're in the market for a fence, solar panels are becoming an increasingly viable option because they're now so damn cheap.
What's old is new again
Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey is currently on a mission to electrify an old Toyota Hilux. And Volkswagen NZ provided an open-source toolkit for anyone that wants to electrify their Kombi van.
It’s called the Greenprint and, based on the success of this project, it's looking at offering solutions for owners of Beetles and Golf.
As the case study says: “Sometimes the best new car for the planet is an old one.”
If you've got electrification news you think deserves some attention, let us know on social or via email.
In the last Electric Avenue of 2025, we look at the two biggest trends in the world of energy; the Government goes electric for its fancy fleet upgrade; Nick Offerman offers his services to a US campaign extolling the virtues of EVs; Australia shows what's possible in new homes when you add solar, batteries and smart tech; a start-up selling portable solar and battery systems that wants it to be as easy and common as wi-fi; and The Lines Company looks to put some solar on the roof of the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.
Read moreDownloadWhen it comes to electric farming, "the numbers are becoming undeniable," says Nicholson Poultry's Jeff Collings. With 60kW of solar, a Nissan Leaf as a 'farm quad', electric mowers, an electric ute that can run a water blaster, and even a chicken manure scraper made out of a wrecked Tesla that, as Rewiring's Matt Newman says, looks a bit like something out of Mad Max, "almost everything is electric". There aren't many others in New Zealand who have gone this far down the electric road. And, with his electric Stark Varg, the fastest off-road motorbike in the world, he's obviously having plenty of fun on that road, too.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kate Newton reports on the "madness" of thousands of new piped gas connections being installed into houses every year, despite dwindling supplies and higher lifetime costs.
Casey said it was positive that the numbers showed people starting to leave the gas network of their own accord, but not all households were in a position to make that choice.
"If we don't plan for a decommissioning of the gas network, then it's going to be a chaotic transition, where vulnerable New Zealanders really suffer."
As the research of Rewiring and others has shown, gas is expensive, it's getting more expensive, it's terrible for your health when burned inside and there are substitutes available right now that, on average, do the same job for less money over the long run for households, would save the country billions on health costs and lost productivity, and don't pump out unnecessary emissions.
Around 300,000 homes and businesses have connections to the gas network (it’s estimated another 300,000 use more expensive bottled gas, mostly in the South Island). The number of active connections has started to decline recently and the country’s largest gas network, Vector, is forecasting no new residential or commercial connections after 2029.
Upfront capital costs are the main barrier for many homes, which is why we're working hard on a low-interest, long-term loan scheme that can be used to pay for electric upgrades, including hot water heat pumps. This would mean paying for a new thing with a loan would be cheaper than paying to run the old thing.
Read more about the scheme here.
Disconnection costs are also a major barrier. We have seen examples where households permanently disconnecting from the network have been charged between $1,000 and $2,000 to have a meter permanently removed (i.e. digging up the pipes to the road), even though it should only cost customers $200 to have the connection capped at the house.
RNZ even reported a case where a business customer was quoted $7,500 but took the case to Utilities Disputes, where complaints about disconnection costs have been rising.
The Australian Energy Regulator and the state of Victoria have now capped the disconnection fees to a few hundred dollars to stop this kind of behaviour and protect households.