Qiulae Wong recently became leader of The Opportunity Party and, as she tells Mike Casey in the second episode of our new series Political Power, she has been on the electric bandwagon for a while now.
When she and her partner returned from London, they looked a getting a hybrid but instead bought a Tesla with an assist from the Clean Car Rebate; they upgraded their electric heating to a more efficient heatpump with the help of a green loan; and the next step is getting solar - although, as she says, being the leader of a political party doesn't leave much time to go through the quotes.
Her dad is pretty pro-gas, something she says is common in Chinese circles, but she showed him how their induction cooktop worked last Christmas and he was amazed at how responsive it was.
When it comes to getting New Zealanders off gas, she says it's an equity issue. That's why the Government needs to help those who are least able to afford the electric upgrades and will eventually get stuck with the rising costs and why she's also supportive of the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, which would offer low-interest, long-term loans to homeowners. \While she thinks we need significant reforms of the energy market, she says we also need to stop the flip flopping between Governments and, in a similar way to places like Ireland, build a vision that Kiwis can believe in. "This is where we're going. We could be the most electrified, cheapest renewable energy country in the world. And that's in our DNA. It's kind of what we're built on and people know us for. But we're starting to lose a bit of that reputation internationally."
While she thinks we need significant reforms of the energy market, she says we also need to stop the flip flopping between Governments and, in a similar way to places like Ireland, build a vision that Kiwis can believe in.
"This is where we're going. We could be the most electrified, cheapest renewable energy country in the world. And that's in our DNA. It's kind of what we're built on and people know us for. But we're starting to lose a bit of that reputation internationally."
If you've got solar, the best option is to use as much of it as possible to avoid high grid prices, but being paid to export energy is a nice cherry on top. It means many New Zealanders end up getting paid by their power company and shorten the payback period of their systems. Regulatory changes that meant customers would be paid more for exporting at peak times were meant to make batteries more appealing to customers and reduce the need for more investment in expensive poles and wires, but, as Marc Daalder writes in Newsroom, some retailers are not passing on the full value of those exports.
Read moreDownloadFinancial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
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