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Gas, batteries and emissions are discussed on RNZ's First Up - and we have some thoughts.
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'.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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