Read our new Electric Homes and Vehicles report
Now we're cooking with ... sun!
More and more businesses are looking at their energy bills, whether it's the gas bottles on the side of the building, electricity from the grid, or fuel for their vehicles, and wondering how they can better insulate themselves from ongoing price rises. Peter Price, owner of the European Bakery in Queenstown, has found a way.
He has been on a mission to upgrade its ovens from gas to electric and worked with his landlord John Eckhold and the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator (QEA) team to get solar installed on its building to run them. Price says the motivation to go electric was partly around sustainability, partly around continuity of supply given the shortage of domestic gas, and partly around the rising cost of gas. He has already got two electric ovens and, as the older gas ovens need replacing, they'll be electric, too.
Eckhold says he has been interested in solar for some time, but it's only recently that he felt the economics stacked up and a "tipping point was reached". When his previous tenant moved out and European Bakery was set to move in, he discovered that they were big users of electricity, so he had another look.
As the bakery was able to use 100% of the solar generation, electrician Luke Grieve says the best option was to cover as much of the roof space as possible with panels and Eckhold has ended up with 178 of them.
Now, he has an asset that will increase the value and appeal of his property and can be paid off over time by his tenants, while the European Bakery gets lower energy prices than it would if it had to rely completely on the grid or gas. This is a big win-win and the QEA has developed a Solar for Renters programme to try and help more landlords and tenants follow suit.
The QEA's role is to provide independent advice on the best solution for homes and businesses and help turn Queenstown into the world's most electric destination. And Price says they were there right from the start. He says there's been a lot of learning since those early discussions and he's hopeful that other businesses will now be able to learn from their experience.
"Overall, it all feels like it's heading in the right direction."
Rewiring Aotearoa always fights for the people who use the energy. The new Electricity Authority chair John Harbord has been doing the same thing for a while now, albeit at the big end of town, so we’re excited to see what he brings to the table because there’s a lot that needs to change.
Read moreDownloadThe only way is up for solar as New Zealand hits 1GW (but the powers that be still keep underestimating its appeal, as they have done consistently and almost comically around the world); the only way is down for bills in electric homes, as the Eye Surgery in Hastings and financial commentator Frances Cook explain; veteran environmentalist Bill McKibben talks to Ezra Klein about the economic forces pushing the world towards solar - and what's slowing it down; Pitcairn Island ditches the diesel, while the Vatican aims to get all its energy from heaven, rather than hell; and can you run an off-grid workshop with old vape batteries?
Read moreDownloadSpecial report: EV batteries could store all the power we need in a day. How can NZ unlock that energy to slash bills and keep the lights on? As QEA and Rewiring Aotearoa's Josh Ellison says about the potential: “You’re getting a battery for less than $1000/kWh and it comes with a free car. Or really, what is more realistic is that people are buying a car for car reasons. They need a car. And it’s coming with a battery that can then give them all these other financial benefits, like lowering their bills.”
Read moreDownload
