The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
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Talk about going in one door and out the other.More people than ever are struggling to pay their energy bills. There is a system designed to help those in that situation and a total of $562 million was paid in the last financial year through the Winter Energy Payment. There are additional emergency payments on top of this. And this completely ignores the wider health and social costs of 'energy poverty.' Interestingly, a similar amount - $482 million - was paid to the Government in dividends from its shares in the gentailers Meridian, Mercury and Genesis in the last financial year.
Many of us feel good about our ownership of the gentailers and what they provide back to the Government. We're in favour of a more circular economy and electrification offers a great opportunity to embrace that, but this is the kind of circular economy that doesn’t make any sense.
It is a band-aid solution and it is not addressing the root cause of the problem.
According to Statistics NZ, since December 2021, electricity prices have risen by 27 percent. Other estimates suggest prices will increase by around 30% before the end of the decade. And the latest from the Electricity Authority shows 40%, yes 40%, of households are worried they won't be able to pay their power bills in the next year.
If the Government is serious about reducing bills, it should instead be investing some of that money into solar in homes - and particularly low-income homes.
Even just $6-7 million would allow nearly every home to access long-term low interest finance through the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. Homes with solar could save around $1,000 per year, including loan repayments. And homes with the full suite of electric kit could save around $2,000 per year.
The Government would get its money back and breaking the link with the big energy landlords that keep ratcheting up prices would be much more effective at lowering energy bills than the usual tactic of applying ‘downward pressure’. That hasn’t worked.
The current system is not a good example of ‘smart economic management’, and neither is the similarly circular decision to cancel the $1 billion GIDI fund, which was designed to get gas users onto electricity, and spend “north of $1 billion” to build a new LNG terminal that will keep them hooked on gas and do very little to lower bills.
Real savings begin at home.
"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.