The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Substitution, not sacrifice. Lifetime savings, not upfront costs. Cheap locally-made electrons, not expensive foreign molecules. These were the main messages at Wheels at Wānaka, where around 65,000 people streamed through the gates to honour the past and get a glimpse of the electric future. TVNZ's Jared McCulloch was there to capture the action, and he stopped in to talk about Forest Lodge Orchard's electric 1990 Toyota Hilux.
Forest Lodge Orchard's electric Monarch tractor attracted plenty of attention, Tesla's Cybertruck was a hit with the kids and showed what modern electric technology is capable of, huge electric machine offered a good example of what's possible at the big end of town, and Nomad Safaris' electric bus proved to other tour operators that their next people movers should be electric.
Events like this show how engrained fossil fuels are, but it's important to recognise that many of these machines played a crucial role in our progress and have been essential for developing our roads, suburbs, cities and economies.
For many in attendance this event was more about passions than practicalities; more about an emotional connection than an economic equation. As Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey often says, electrify everything you don't love. Keep your vintage cars (or even better, electrify them) but maybe upgrade your gas hot water heater.
For those running farms or businesses, however, it's a different calculation. If there is a machine available that can do the same job at a lower cost, you'd be mad not to explore that option - and in a range of different areas, this is now what electric machines offer, especially if you fuel them with solar.
Technologies change and, as many mechanically-minded pragmatists mentioned to our team, it's pretty clear where things are heading.
Some are willing to take the risk and try out a new technology early. Most want to wait until it becomes 'normal', but it's dangerous to wait too long and it can be costly to invest in the wrong tech. So make your next machine electric.
Everyone is rocking on down to Electric Avenue today (this one online, not that other small one in Hagley Park in Christchurch), so let's ride the lightning: profits and electricity prices keep going up, as panels keep going down; a new paper puts a number on how much more homes with solar sell for; we're bottling things up with big and small batteries and they are eating into gas in Australia and California; transport emissions drop across the Tasman as a result of Government EV incentives, while HEB Construction electrifies its fleet; electrons are coming from above in China; and Xpeng announces the arrival of a crazy looking electric van/aircraft carrier.
Read moreDownloadWarren G and Nate Dogg said it best when they said: 'Regulators, mount up!' - and this week, they have.In a rare joint open letter, three different regulators - EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority - have basically told the lines companies to pull their socks up and make the most of ‘non-network solutions’ (AKA stop building more expensive poles and wires and start looking at customers and new technology as part of the solution!).
Read moreDownload"The LNG announcement from earlier this month has set the stage: electricity, and the energy sector more broadly, is set to be a major election issue this year. Casey has compared electricity to telecommunications, an area where services have become much cheaper in the last decade with technology advancing. “There are supply challenges for the grid and natural gas, and increasing pressure to find sustainable alternatives as reliance on fossil fuels becomes less viable,” he wrote in a Newsroom piece earlier this month, heralding the “electric election”.
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