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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."
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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