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New Zealand is going to need a lot more electricity as homes and businesses swap out fossil fuel machines for much more efficient electric versions. MBIE has just released a report showing a range of different scenarios and under favourable economic conditions the demand for electricity could rise by 81 percent by 2050. Where we get all that extra electricity from is an important strategic question for New Zealand and the report says wind and solar will be the "least cost" way to meet this demand. At Rewiring Aotearoa, we believe a lot of the extra electricity we need could come from rooftop solar and because it is produced where it is used it is the cheapest form of delivered electricity New Zealanders can get. Batteries are also dropping in price and rooftop solar and battery combinations can reduce peak loads while saving on energy bills. This is vital context for how we choose to build out the energy system to be low cost and highly resilient.
Read moreDownload the document hereIf you've got solar, the best option is to use as much of it as possible to avoid high grid prices, but being paid to export energy is a nice cherry on top. It means many New Zealanders end up getting paid by their power company and shorten the payback period of their systems. Regulatory changes that meant customers would be paid more for exporting at peak times were meant to make batteries more appealing to customers and reduce the need for more investment in expensive poles and wires, but, as Marc Daalder writes in Newsroom, some retailers are not passing on the full value of those exports.
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