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Newsroom journalist Marc Daalder, who was facilitating the discussion on the first day of the Electrify Queenstown conference, reports on the Government's active consideration of one of the most critical proposals in Rewiring Aotearoa's manifesto: electrification loans (and not just for solar) for everyone.
As he wrote:
A new policy manifesto from electrification advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa has notched a success already, with Energy Minister Simon Watts confirming he’s open to adopting one of its most critical proposals.
Nearly 60 policies are included in Rewiring’s roadmap to electrifying New Zealand, with each ranked on a 1-10 scale from lower to higher impact. The organisation has found electrifying the 84 percent of fossil fuelled machines in New Zealand which are economically and technology viable to electrify could save Kiwis $29 million a day by 2040.
The only policy ranked a 10 is making electrification loans accessible to everyone – with a specific idea mooted to leverage the high-quality credit rating of councils to access low-interest finance from capital markets, without the debt ending up on council balance sheets.
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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