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Crux talks to Mike Casey about the launch of Rewiring Aotearoa's ambitious new Queenstown Electrification Accelerator project. "The vision is big. To make Queenstown the global capital of total electrification - buses, cars, hotels, our airport, houses - and yes, even gondolas. For the region to become the world’s most electrified destination."
As Peter Newport wrote in his introductory piece:
There’s a lot of talk about electrification in Queenstown and the Southern Lakes at the moment but today something different has happened. Mike Casey, a man with a formidable business record and apparently limitless energy, has launched the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator.
The vision is big. To make Queenstown the global capital of total electrification - buses, cars, hotels, our airport, houses - and yes, even gondolas. For the region to become the world’s most electrified destination.
The QEA project has some big muscle behind it - private investors, local council and tourism agencies, the NZ Government, Mike’s organisation Rewiring Aotearoa and Ara Ake - NZ’s future energy Hub.
Most importantly Mike has the stamina and business acumen to get us all on board.
Crux is fully committed to backing the QEA project and has watched Mike turn vision into reality first with his Forest Lodge cherry farm near Cromwell and in recent times becoming NZ’s leading advocate for fundamental change in the energy sector. Mike is a successful entrepreneur who founded and then sold two major Australian companies before returning to NZ.
The new website which went live only a few hours ago presents a clear and compelling view of where the project is heading.
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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