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Queenstown-Lakes landlords are being sought for a New Zealand-first pilot programme. The Queenstown Electrification Accelerator (QEA) is about to kick in to a solar trial, aimed at ensuring residential and commercial renters can benefit from solar power, despite not owning the roof.
QEA business electrification lead Lowri Swygart says, till now, there hasn’t been a straightforward way to ensure the energy transition is inclusive of residential rental properties, for example.
‘‘As part of the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator . . . [we] realised this is a topic that came up time and time again, so we thought we’d put together a trial with a couple of different options of how we can help people through the process, then work out what are the barriers, if we’ve got solutions in place, and how can we make it as easy as possible for renters to have access to low-cost solar energy.’’
Swygart says about 60 people have already registered their interest in participating in the trial— the majority of those residential landlords.
A very cool 'floatovoltaics' project makes use of unproductive pond space and also helps those struggling with their energy bills; renewables push down the price of electricity to nothing (or less than nothing) in Scandinavia and South Australia and New Zealand has an opportunity to follow suit; France goes hard on electrification, while the UK builds better; Aussie truckies reckon electrification will take decades but much bigger electric machines are here now, including some from Volvo; hydrogen generators are an innovation we do not need; the Speight's brewery gets off the gas with a $7.2 million electric boiler; and a bit of 'solarcasm' demonstrates how going off-grid is now an option for some.
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