Farmer's Weekly editor Bryan Gibson talks to Mike Casey on the InFocus podcast about paying back the capital on a recent solar investment in five years, the changes that need to be made to the 'braided river' that is our national grid to incentivise more farms to become power plants, and the strangeness of the current system that sees fossil fuels sent from Saudi Arabia, to Singapore and then onto boats and trucks, when we could be powering our electric farm machines directly from the farm.
Fairbank Farms in Southland installed a $200k solar and battery system on its dairy farm and, as co-owner Chris Stewart says, they were able to continue milking even though the grid was down after the recent storms. With a sizeable payout coming to Fonterra farmers from the sale of its consumer brands soon, he says it would be a good time for them to invest in greater resilience. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says dairy farmers listen to dairy farmers so this is a great proof point for others to take the leap into solar and batteries, while Fed Farmers wants to see more members setting themselves up to run off the grid.
Read moreDownloadThere’s plenty of energy emanating from the ground at Te Puia in Rotorua. And there’s plenty of creative energy emanating from those studying at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. Now there’s also plenty of electric energy, because the business has upgraded its fossil fuel vehicles and added a big solar system so they can run on the sun.
Read moreDownloadIn search of cleaner air, Vietnam prepares to usher in an electric motorbike era, while other developing nations go electric for the economics and the UK goes bananas for small EVs; ten years since the Paris Accord and there are many reasons to be optimistic; America's first all-electric hospital gets set to open; Pila Energy looks to get more storage into homes by focusing on appliances; Australia takes another step forward on V2G and some customers are making good money from renting out their cars; and an electric angle to the Louvre heist.
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