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"The cheapest unit of gas is the one you do not use,” EECA chief executive Marcos Pelenur said in a piece on the NZ Herald. Europe's response to severe gas shortages after the start of the Ukraine war was focused on efficiency, flexibility and heat pumps and as New Zealand deals with its own shortage, we can learn from it.
As he said:
“Savings from heat pumps [in Europe] and reduced wastage largely offset the loss of gas supply, and drove a 6% total drop in all energy consumption, demonstrating the potential of demand-side action,” he told the Herald.
“They are very different contexts, but are similar conditions in the sense that from the Ukraine-Russia war there was a sudden gas shortage, and then they had to quickly pivot to deal with this gas crunch.
“And so specifically it was essentially heat pumps and then identifying and reducing waste.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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