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It may sound weird (and possibly illegal) but electrifying your friends and relatives is a good option, writes Mike Casey.
It's hard to change people's perspectives, but Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey is particularly proud of the fact that he's managed to 'electrify his dad' Simon Casey, who ran as a candidate for the Act Party in the last election.
As he writes in an op-ed in The Post about what he's doing for the planet in 2025, saving money was the main motivation for dad's decision to get an EV, rooftop solar and a battery, but upgrading to electric machines has also chopped his emissions down to almost nothing. Win-win!
Wanting to save money is something most of us have in common and you can save plenty of it by electrifying your life. And if you've already done it, one of the best things you can do for the planet is to follow Mike's lead and electrify your mums, dads, siblings, cousins, friends and grumpy uncles.
"If you succeed, that is one gift that will keep on giving."
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.
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