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Taranaki Daily News' Catherine Groenestein tells the story of her solar journey: "Every day this week, the gorgeous late autumn sunshine has felt like a double blessing. As well as the sense of wellbeing a sunny day brings, it's boosting our financial health too, because since May 6, we've been harvesting solar energy off our roof. With the fervour of a religious convert or reformed smoker, I'm regularly checking the clever app on my phone to see how those panels are performing. Our solar journey began late last year when I interviewed electrification advocate Mike Casey from Rewiring Aotearoa, around the time an email arrived announcing yet another price hike from the gas company. Partway through the conversation for a story (the convincing case for electrifying your life) about the financial benefits of rooftop solar, I was convinced. To get my husband Phil on board, I bought us tickets to Sustainable Taranaki's Electrify Your Whare session, where Casey was guest speaker and we learned about how it works."
Read moreDownload the document hereWhen 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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