The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
The New Zealand Green Building Council's new report 'Closing the Gap' shows that improving buildings could save New Zealand almost $40 billion and slash emissions. "Improving the standard of new buildings and electrification are no-brainers. The sooner we get started, the more emissions we’ll avoid and the more money Kiwis, businesses and farmers will save," says Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey. Andrew Eagles, NZGBC chief executive says: "As New Zealand is bound by law and international trade agreements to reduce our emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, our buildings are a key lever." Actions explored in the report include: Staggered improvements to the building code, requiring new buildings to measuring operational and upfront carbon emissions at consenting stage from 2025, a 20% reduction in both upfront and operational emissions by 2028, 40% reduction in upfront carbon emissions and near zero energy in operation by 20230, and a 60% reduction in upfront carbon emissions and near zero energy in operation by 2034. Require all homes put up for sale or rent to have an Energy Performance Certificates by 2028, and all office buildings over 1,000sqm put up for sale or lease to have a NABERSNZ certificate from 2026. Phase out of fossil gas in homes and commercial buildings. Suggested actions include expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme to subsidise electrification of home heating from 2027, converting 25,000 homes a year. End new residential fossil gas connections from 2026. Implement a concerted programme, building on the successful replacement of coal boilers in schools and hospitals, to subsidise 10% of commercial buildings per year from 2026 to electrify.
Everyone is rocking on down to Electric Avenue today (this one online, not that other small one in Hagley Park in Christchurch), so let's ride the lightning: profits and electricity prices keep going up, as panels keep going down; a new paper puts a number on how much more homes with solar sell for; we're bottling things up with big and small batteries and they are eating into gas in Australia and California; transport emissions drop across the Tasman as a result of Government EV incentives, while HEB Construction electrifies its fleet; electrons are coming from above in China; and Xpeng announces the arrival of a crazy looking electric van/aircraft carrier.
Read moreDownloadWarren G and Nate Dogg said it best when they said: 'Regulators, mount up!' - and this week, they have.In a rare joint open letter, three different regulators - EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority - have basically told the lines companies to pull their socks up and make the most of ‘non-network solutions’ (AKA stop building more expensive poles and wires and start looking at customers and new technology as part of the solution!).
Read moreDownload"The LNG announcement from earlier this month has set the stage: electricity, and the energy sector more broadly, is set to be a major election issue this year. Casey has compared electricity to telecommunications, an area where services have become much cheaper in the last decade with technology advancing. “There are supply challenges for the grid and natural gas, and increasing pressure to find sustainable alternatives as reliance on fossil fuels becomes less viable,” he wrote in a Newsroom piece earlier this month, heralding the “electric election”.
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