The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Rewiring Aotearoa supports the proposed changes to Multiple Trading Relationships (MTR) (allowing two traders – distributed generation and consumption), which will increase consumer choice and introduce more competition to retail tariffs. For example, it will disincentivise tariffs that offer competitive export tariffs, but also ramp up consumption tariffs. The Electricity Authority should also implement changes at this time that require retailers to allow large sites to share solar across multiple co-located installation control points (ICPs, i.e. ICP aggregation), and facilitate peer to peer trading for small scale renewable generators with local sites. Rewiring Aotearoa disagrees that delaying these steps via a staged approach is in consumers best interest. Consumers should not have to wait until demand increases to unlock the benefits of their solar and battery systems or access more competitive options from retailers. This should be supported now, to help consumers make investment and retail tariff decisions that reduce their overall energy bills.
Read moreDownload the document here"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.