The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
'New Zealand can't afford not to electrify,' says Q&A's Jack Tame in the introduction to a story about Rewiring Aotearoa's new paper Investing in Tomorrow. He talks to Dr Saul Griffith about the savings at a household level, the $29 million a day electrification opportunity for the country as a whole, the economic slam dunk of rooftop solar and why the Government should be looking to give favourable finance to customers who can become part of our energy infrastructure.
Watch the full episode on TVNZ+ here.
Compared to most of our MPs, Scott Willis is a very early adopter. As the latest episode of our 'Political Power' series shows, the Green MP's home in Waitati has had solar panels on the roof since 2013 and he bought a Nissan Leaf in 2016. He runs a full suite of electric gardening gear - which can often be a powerful gateway drug after people see how well they perform - and recently upgraded to a BYD Atto3 with a 60kwH battery.
Read moreDownload“People come up and ask, ‘Are you bribing politicians?’ And my answer to that is, well, I’m bribing them all equally,” he said. Each box was worth close to $90. But Mike said the cherries were less about currying favour and more about opening a cross-party conversation on electrification. “I want it to not be a political hot potato, because I genuinely believe, no matter what side of politics you’re on, electrification is good for the country. From an energy sovereignty, an energy security, an economic and a climate perspective, everybody wins.”
Read moreDownloadAround 150,000 new vehicles are purchased every year in New Zealand and around 60% of them are bought by businesses. We reckon a lot more of them should be electric - both for the benefit of those companies but also to seed the second-hand market - and that could be on the cards now because one of the major barriers to fleet EV uptake has been removed.
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