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The New Zealand Herald's Chris Keall (paywalled) has gone deep on the SolarZero collapse and, while there are still questions being asked about the public investment, Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says it was a business model failure and, just as Kodak didn't define the camera industry, this shouldn't define a sector or dent confidence in the technology. Energy Minister Simeon Brown also talked about a number of positive changes that will make it cheaper and easier to install rooftop solar.
Rewiring Aotearoa has been advocating strongly for regulatory changes that would level the playing field for New Zealanders who have invested in solar and batteries and it was pleasing see the Minister respond with specific changes when asked by the Herald what he had planned.
“Reducing regulatory barriers and cutting through red tape to deliver affordable and secure electricity is a key part of our plan to rebuild the economy and double New Zealand’s supply of renewable electricity."
The Government is delivering a number of changes to support greater uptake of solar, Brown said, including:
Additionally, the energy competition task force led by the Electricity Authority and Commerce Commission is also investigating a further two actions to support the uptake of household solar panels and batteries, Brown said.
“Solar energy will play a key role in New Zealand’s future energy system and support the transition to a low emissions economy, and these changes together will help make it cheaper and easier to install solar including rooftop solar installations,” Brown said.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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