The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
We're raising the roof on 'solar appreciation day' as Alpine Energy grows connections by 25% in a year and the country as a whole is close behind; a new paper in Nature shows that rooftop solar, long seen as a niche solution, could be the best way to reduce fossil fuel reliance; New Zealand is singled out as an early adopter of much more efficient industrial heat pumps; Toyota finally steps up its electric game with an upgrades to its existing BEV and two new models; and an optimistic take on the world's response to climate change.
Raise the roof
For all those who celebrate, happy Solar Appreciation Day (another great example of the holiday industrial complex in action).
Locally, Alpine Energy in the South Island marked this auspicious occasion with a post celebrating a 25% increase in solar connections in the district in the last year. That makes a total of 786 connections and 4.2MW of capacity on the network.
“And the future looks even brighter! We're exploring the potential to connect over 50MW of large-scale solar farms in the region – enough to potentially power Tekapo and Twizel on a sunny day.”
New Zealand as a whole clocked in with a 21% growth rate in rooftop solar installs, according to the Electricity Authority. Around 9,000 of those came with a battery.
While we're all for more large-scale renewable energy, rooftop solar deserves the most appreciation as it's the cheapest form of delivered energy available to New Zealanders. Generation is only around half the cost of electricity, so making it on your roof is the best bet if you want to lower your electricity bills.
Things are looking up
Sticking with solar, a new paper in Nature that used tech to calculate the world’s roofspace and looked at differences in solar potential across regions, has shown that rooftop solar could play a much bigger role in emissions reductions than originally thought.
“Solar energy is an essential technology for climate change mitigation, showing impressive technological learning curves and large future potential. While often underestimated in climate stabilization models, it could provide the single largest contribution to mitigation in 2050. Rooftop photovoltaic, initially a niche solution, may also offer a global-scale opportunity to reduce fossil fuel reliance.”
New Zealand is something of an outlier in terms of electricity generation, most of which is renewable. For many countries that burn more fossil fuels to produce electricity, solar is a smart way to create a cleaner grid, but as our latest explainer showed, in New Zealand it is more about providing more (and more affordable) electricity, improving energy security and weaning ourselves of fossil fuels in the wider energy system, particularly for transport.
Pump up the jam
New Zealanders have taken to heat pumps in their homes like ducks to water. And New Zealand businesses and industries have also been quick on the uptake. As this story in Renew Economy says, New Zealand is something of a poster child for industrial electrification.
A lot of this stimulus came from Government funding, just as a lot of Australia’s solar boom came from subsidies. That has now largely gone, but the economics of electrification tend to win on their own these days and New Zealand’s gas shortage has also pushed businesses towards more efficient industrial heat pump solutions.
As the story says: “In a new study into what Australia can learn from its electric-forward cousins across the Tasman, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) says the stats are bearing out the benefits of switching away from gas: between 2019 and 2022 coal use within the food and beverage industry fell by 12 per cent and gas by 21 per cent, and electricity use rose by just 7 per cent.
High electricity prices remain a concern for businesses after last year’s dry year wholesale price debacle, which is why we’re advocating for a lot more solar on our homes, farms and businesses as that will reduce the price for everyone on the network.
Better with batteries
It’s fair to say Toyota has been a laggard when it comes to releasing electric models and has instead focused on hybrids (some argue it has actively fought against the transition to EVs). But, as this sponsored story in New Zealand Geographic about an electric summer road trip said, “it is one of the most trusted automotive brands in the country and could play an especially important role in the electrification of New Zealand. In Norway, for instance, more than 90 per cent of all new cars sold in January were EVs, and the bZ4X made up more than 10 per cent of all sales.”
In what is a positive sign of momentum on this front from one of the world’s biggest carmakers, Toyota has announced some major updates to the bZ4X to increase its range - which many felt was too low - as well as the arrival of new electric models, the C-HR+ and Urban Cruiser in Europe.
Toyota will continue to grow its BEV range and deliver on its ambition to reveal 6 new BEV models by the end of 2026. Following the example set by the new Urban Cruiser and Toyota C-HR+, these will adopt a traditional naming strategy to make them familiar and instantly recognisable to customers.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, electric cars are a clear win on the economics - especially when charged at home with rooftop solar - and there’s no contest when it comes to emissions, so it’s good to see Toyota finally start to recognise this inevitable shift.
Globally, EV sales continue to rise, with estimates from BloombergNEF that one third of all new car sales will be battery electric by 2026.
Sphere of influence
The world of energy is changing. And it’s economics that’s largely driving it. This beautifully-made video from Simon Clark featuring a model of the Earth shows how much progress we've made on climate change and how quickly renewables are growing around the world.
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.