The 'Electric Election': energy policies, side by side
One News has covered the Investing in Tomorrow report, which shows that big household savings from electrification add up to big national savings. As Dr Saul Griffith says about the $29 million day that New Zealand could save if we swapped out fossil fuel machines for electric equivalents and ran them off renewable electricity from the grid, rooftop solar and batteries: "It's nice to be able to make the carrot that large because I think it focuses the policy mind on how to get there."
He said a "wartime level of effort" is required to have a chance at mitigating the very worst effects of climate change, as set out in the Paris Agreement targets.
"This is an uncomfortable thing to say. I believe in capitalism, but you have to go faster than the free market can go. You need to replace all of the machines that burn fossil fuels faster than their actual lifetimes, with machines that don't."
The installation of a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger at the Arrowtown Community Centre has made it one of the most resilient emergency hubs in the country. The bidirectional Starcharge unit, which was fully commissioned last week, can not only charge an electric vehicle (EV) but also draw power from the batteries of compatible EVS to provide backup power for the building in the event of an emergency.
Read moreDownloadThere is growing demand from voters for long-term solutions to energy and transport costs and this year we’ve seen some rare political unity around solar in New Zealand, but there is a gaping hole when it comes to EV policy, writes Rewiring Aotearoa’s Josh Ellison.
Read moreDownloadWe always like to celebrate a lift in EV sales at Rewiring, but we’re not celebrating too hard, because new Zealand is lagging behind most other markets when it comes to adoption rates. While sales are up by around 170% on the same time last year, just 10% of new cars sold were electric in October, down slightly from previous months (at a regional level, Nelson took the prize for highest share with 25%, followed by Wellington and Tasman).
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