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We know that going electric can help reduce household bills, but the upfront costs are still a big barrier for many. Getting past that requires access to finance and that's now closer than ever.
As Rewiring Aotearoa's Mike Casey explains, Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Hutt City and New Plymouth District have all signed on as shareholding / founding councils for the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, with EECA also chipping in to get the infrastructure set up.
Our policy manifesto ranked low-interest, long-term electrification loans that are tied to properties as the idea that would have the biggest impact on New Zealand's electrification ambitions - and on household bills. That's one part of this scheme, which has required a lot of hard worked from us, Local Government New Zealand and Local Government Funding Agency, so it's great to see so much support for it.
It means that households will be more easily able to do things like install solar, batteries and hot water heat pumps and they can pay the loan back over time or, depending on circumstances, when the property sells.
This is big news and it will unlock a lot of potential. Now it's time to build public momentum for this.
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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