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Rewiring Aotearoa CEO takes home one of the big gongs.
Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey has taken home the transformational leadership trophy at the Sustainable Business Awards.
Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Mindful Money's Barry Coates said: “Mike’s work is a testament to the viability of electrification at scale. His all-electric cherry orchard not only demonstrates the practical steps for lowering emissions but also proves these changes make sound business sense. Mike has been a tireless advocate for electrifying everything. His approach in catalysing a credible brains-trust to both challenge the established science and demonstrate a change model at Government level and for major business leaders is an impressive step towards this paradigm shift in the energy and transmission sector."
In his acceptance speech he said he was 'just a megaphone for the incredibly hard work' of the Rewiring Aotearoa team. There's no doubt he's an effective megaphone, but he's much more than that. He is a tribute to the power of a first and a prime example of the way a successful demonstration project can change people's perspectives.
Like many entrepreneurs and innovators before him who were told they couldn't do something (like build rockets/tech companies/wine regions/foiling boats), he decided to create an all-electric cherry orchard near Cromwell back in 2019. Not only did he prove it could be done and that it was good for the planet, he also showed it was good for the bottom line.
But, like any good start-up founder, he found a way to scale up his impact after taking on the CEO role at Rewiring Aotearoa and shouting electrification from the rooftops. More than 12,000 people have visited the orchard to see how it all works, he has spoken at over 100 events and made over 100 media appearances. Now he's on a mission to turn New Zealand into a demonstration project and prove that we can become the world's most electric economy. The transformation is just getting started.
Transformational Leadership Commendations were awarded to:
In the Disruptive innovation category, Lodestone Energy took the title, making it a double for solar advaocates (although. to be clear, solar farms and rooftop solar are two different kettles of fish).
“Lodestone shows how clean energy solutions can be financially viable, enhancing New Zealand’s energy security and contributing significantly to our zero-carbon ambitions," says Coates. "The scope of Lodestone’s impact is impressive. With the capacity to power 50,000 homes, its five solar farms demonstrate that solar power generation is a low-cost and viable source of power to help meet the demands of our electrifying economy.
“The company’s dual land-use model shows its forward-thinking approach. By raising panels to allow agricultural activities like sheep grazing, Lodestone optimises land use, supporting both energy generation and local agriculture,” he said.
Disruptive Innovation Commendations were awarded to:
A new Next 95 list of awards finalists was also unveiled, featuring 95 Kiwi businesses innovators, entrepreneurs, projects and organisations that are leading Aotearoa New Zealand towards a better future.
In the last Electric Avenue of 2025, we look at the two biggest trends in the world of energy; the Government goes electric for its fancy fleet upgrade; Nick Offerman offers his services to a US campaign extolling the virtues of EVs; Australia shows what's possible in new homes when you add solar, batteries and smart tech; a start-up selling portable solar and battery systems that wants it to be as easy and common as wi-fi; and The Lines Company looks to put some solar on the roof of the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.
Read moreDownloadWhen it comes to electric farming, "the numbers are becoming undeniable," says Nicholson Poultry's Jeff Collings. With 60kW of solar, a Nissan Leaf as a 'farm quad', electric mowers, an electric ute that can run a water blaster, and even a chicken manure scraper made out of a wrecked Tesla that, as Rewiring's Matt Newman says, looks a bit like something out of Mad Max, "almost everything is electric". There aren't many others in New Zealand who have gone this far down the electric road. And, with his electric Stark Varg, the fastest off-road motorbike in the world, he's obviously having plenty of fun on that road, too.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kate Newton reports on the "madness" of thousands of new piped gas connections being installed into houses every year, despite dwindling supplies and higher lifetime costs.
Casey said it was positive that the numbers showed people starting to leave the gas network of their own accord, but not all households were in a position to make that choice.
"If we don't plan for a decommissioning of the gas network, then it's going to be a chaotic transition, where vulnerable New Zealanders really suffer."
As the research of Rewiring and others has shown, gas is expensive, it's getting more expensive, it's terrible for your health when burned inside and there are substitutes available right now that, on average, do the same job for less money over the long run for households, would save the country billions on health costs and lost productivity, and don't pump out unnecessary emissions.
Around 300,000 homes and businesses have connections to the gas network (it’s estimated another 300,000 use more expensive bottled gas, mostly in the South Island). The number of active connections has started to decline recently and the country’s largest gas network, Vector, is forecasting no new residential or commercial connections after 2029.
Upfront capital costs are the main barrier for many homes, which is why we're working hard on a low-interest, long-term loan scheme that can be used to pay for electric upgrades, including hot water heat pumps. This would mean paying for a new thing with a loan would be cheaper than paying to run the old thing.
Read more about the scheme here.
Disconnection costs are also a major barrier. We have seen examples where households permanently disconnecting from the network have been charged between $1,000 and $2,000 to have a meter permanently removed (i.e. digging up the pipes to the road), even though it should only cost customers $200 to have the connection capped at the house.
RNZ even reported a case where a business customer was quoted $7,500 but took the case to Utilities Disputes, where complaints about disconnection costs have been rising.
The Australian Energy Regulator and the state of Victoria have now capped the disconnection fees to a few hundred dollars to stop this kind of behaviour and protect households.