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The Post's Alka Prasad has gone deep into how farmers are electrifying their operations, installing solar and batteries to alleviate concerns about dry years, and reducing their energy costs. As Maniototo farmer and owner of Solayer Becks Smith says in the story: "It's not an either-or situation from hydro-generated electricity to solar-generated electricity. It's about having a renewable electricity grid and shifting as far from fossil-fuel energy as we can,” she says. “For business resilience, the energy you can generate and use yourself is the cheapest energy you'll ever get." Rewiring Aotearoa CEO and electric orchardist Mike Casey says "farmers could have a huge positive influence on New Zealand's electricity system by generating power themselves and putting it into the grid for everybody else to be able to heat their homes, heat their water and charge their electric vehicles". "We can treat our hydropower scheme more like a battery which could power our homes and businesses at night time and solar can do a lot of the grunt work during the day,” he adds.
Read moreDownload the document hereHow the sun led to higher salaries for teachers in the US and why this should be happening here, too; how "the once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world" as electrification gives more countries a productivity boost (and how that would allow New Zealand to keep embracing our long, languid summer break); solar continues to weather storms and provide 'free resilience'; Dunedin laundry company Preens goes electric and saves over 300 utes worth of emissions; the company that wants you to drink diesel exhaust; and a wonderful rundown of the Kill Bills tour - and the national electrification opportunity - from one of the tour sponsors.
Read moreDownloadAs gas supplies decline and prices rise, electrification is the best bet, but it's hard for big businesses without government support. Kirsty Johnston talks to Rainbow Nurseries about how it made the switch with help from a grant, and others who are unsure they will be able to keep getting gas. As one busines owner said: "We never considered the risk to the business of not actually having natural gas," one participant said. "We always expect that the price could fluctuate… But we never anticipated maybe having no gas coming from the pipeline." There are ways for the Government to help. And there is a huge amount of new renewable electricity coming on stream, so there won't be a shortage of electrons.
Read moreDownloadMarc Daalder reports on Vector's declining gas network and how it is responding to falling customer numbers. As he writes: "Gas in Auckland is formally past its peak in the latest forecasts from Vector, the city’s only gas distribution business, with new connections set to fall to zero in three years ... From 2029, there would be no new residential or commercial connections – with new industrial connections projected to have already ceased this year."
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