On First Up's regular chat with Finance Minister Nicola Willis last week, there was a focus on floods that had hammered the Tasman district. The Government's lack of ambition on emissions reductions in the face of continuing extreme weather events like these was raised and, once again, our small contribution to total emissions was mentioned by Willis as a reason not to try very hard. The all-electric Forest Lodge has provided a demonstration project for others to follow, and it's been very powerful. New Zealand is also important as a role model to lead the way and provide evidence for the other small countries that, when combined, emit more than 2% of global emissions, which adds up to the same amount as China and India.

Willis also mentioned the need for gas to keep electricity flowing when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow and the hydro lakes aren’t full. Host Nathan Rarere countered that argument with a stat from Rewiring Aotearoa and a Mike Casey namedrop showing that we're blowing $40 million a day on mostly imported and expensive fuel.

Willis says electricity experts in New Zealand say there isn’t enough battery technology available to store enough power for the grid. Of course, if you speak to the incumbents they will tell you there is no way to solve the problem that is right now generating their profits but, as an example, just 120,000 homes (or five percent of New Zealand households) with a medium-sized battery could potentially reduce the peak load as much as our largest hydro power station, Manapouri. While these batteries would not hold as much energy as Manapouri, they could output the same amount of power for an hour or two when the system really needs it.

Every home with a battery basically removes themselves from peak, and it could potentially remove their neighbours from peak, too, just as Forest Lodge does. And the price of those batteries is coming down rapidly.

It's important to note that our hydro lakes are basically big batteries that can be turned on when we need them most and we should be using solar to keep them topped up, rather than burning coal and gas when they get low, something we explored in a previous explainer, 'why solar makes sense'.

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