Last week’s start­ling earth­quake is a wake­up call for Queen­stown’s energy inde­pend­ence, an elec­tri­fic­a­tion advoc­ate says. Queen­stown Elec­tri­fic­a­tion Accel­er­ator (QEA) co­lead Josh Ellison says the quake occurred at a time when home solar and elec­tric vehicles are increas­ingly a “din­ner table con­ver­sa­tion” topic because of the surge in pet­rol and diesel prices caused by the con­flict in the Middle East.

Ellison hopes last Thursday night’s mag­nitude 5.9 earth­quake near Te Anau, which pro­duced the strongest shak­ing many Whaka­tipu res­id­ents have felt in years, will amp­lify that con­ver­sa­tion.

He says it’s a reminder that a mag­nitude 8­plus earth­quake on the Alpine Fault — of which sci­ent­ists estim­ate a 75% prob­ab­il­ity within the next 50 years — could leave the area isol­ated for “weeks or even months”.

“We’ve only got one trans­mis­sion line com­ing in through a gorge, and all our road access tra­verses the sides of steep moun­tains.”

If the line came down and road access was cut, the area’s diesel gen­er­at­ors could run out of fuel well before the line was restored, par­tic­u­larly if wide­spread dam­age throughout the South Island made the emer­gency response slow.

There are now about 1000 house­holds in the Whaka­tipu with rooftop solar, “which leaves a lot of house­holds without power if power’s out for a long period”.

QEA, an off­shoot of national non­profit Rewir­ing Aotearoa, car­ries out research, prac­tical tri­als and group dis­count schemes as part of its mis­sion to encour­age homes and busi­nesses in the Whaka­tipu to elec­trify their appli­ances and vehicles.

Ellison says a solar and bat­tery sys­tem will lower the energy bills of an aver­age house­hold more than any other step, espe­cially if it elec­tri­fies its appli­ances and vehicles.

It also hap­pens to be the best way for a house­hold to achieve energy resi­li­ence.

Although com­munity centres and emer­gency evac­u­ation centres will provide sup­port dur­ing a pro­longed power out­age, people liv­ing in house­holds that can pro­duce some of their own power to stay warm, cook meals and keep their lights on will cope best, he says.

The biggest chal­lenge is mak­ing solar and bat­ter­ies access­ible to house­holds who can’t afford the upfront costs, so he’s excited by the two major polit­ical parties recently adopt­ing elec­tion policies aimed at dra­mat­ic­ally increas­ing res­id­en­tial solar uptake.

Both National and Labour are prom­ising gov­ern­ment­backed low­in­terest loans for rooftop solar and bat­ter­ies, with no upfront pay­ment, while the lat­ter’s also prom­ising a means­tested sub­sidy of up to $3000 for lower-­income house­holds.

However, get­ting solar to renters remains a “dilemma”, Ellison says.

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