It was surprising and disappointing to hear about the liquidation of SolarZero yesterday. We were saddened to read on Newsroom the impact of sudden and immediate job losses and the possibility that contractors wouldn’t be paid. There is still a lot of uncertainty around the situation and we don’t know the full story, but whatever the reasons behind this decision, Rewiring Aotearoa’s position is that it is nothing to do with solar technology and it shows that more changes are needed to our energy system. 

SolarZero came up with a model that overcame one of the biggest barriers to solar adoption - upfront costs - and helped grow solar adoption in New Zealand, but those customers didn’t own their panels or batteries and, so, didn’t get the full benefit of the technology. We feel for those customers who are dealing with the uncertainty at the moment, but the economic argument hasn’t changed: rooftop solar is the cheapest electricity available to New Zealand households - if you own your panels. 

There is an inherent loss of control when you rent rather than own and our goal is to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible own their panels. One of the main benefits of ownership is better control over costs and more stable costs over time, as grid electricity or imported fossil fuels are more volatile and have increased at above the rate of inflation. 

We think what has happened in Australia is a more accurate reflection of the solar industry than what has just happened with one relatively small company with an innovative financing model.

There are over four million Australian homes benefiting from rooftop solar right now and some neighbourhoods have 80% rooftop solar adoption. New Zealand is late to this game and our recommendation is always that you own your own solar and reap as many of the cost savings yourself. Even if you finance it on your mortgage (with a warranty on the panels over 30 years) it is still around half the price of grid electricity. Solar companies offering finance schemes may come and go, but banks will stay.

We have also been advocating for low-interest, long-term loans for solar and other appliance upgrades that are tied to property and are repaid at the time of sale or incrementally. NZGIF, which provided capital to SolarZero, and other finance providers continue to have a critical role to play in ensuring necessary finance so households, businesses and farms can own and control their own solar.

Part of SolarZero’s business model was to operate as a virtual power plant. With the combined resources of its customers' panels and batteries, it could provide 30MW of back up supply into the market when supply got really tight (equivalent to 100,000 hot water systems). This was trialled via an Ara Ake pilot last winter. 

Individual homes and businesses with solar and batteries can also provide flexibility to help balance electricity supply and demand. This is why it’s so important for the Government to make sure they are rewarded fairly for supplying back to the grid when it's needed and ease congestion on our networks. We have advocated strongly for something called symmetrical export tariffs and fair payment for solar export at close to the wholesale market rate and the EA is doing some good work in this space to level the playing field.

The Government’s policy statement on electricity and standards upgrades are also clearly focused on improving things for households, which will make the economic argument for investing in your own solar even stronger. 

It’s disappointing to see this news about SolarZero and it may shake confidence in the sector temporarily, but the rapidly dropping cost of these technologies and the rising cost of grid electricity and fossil fuels means this transition is inevitable. Adoption rates are booming here and around the world and sentiment is almost universally positive among those who pay for their own panels. 

Our confidence in this technology remains very high because we have done the research and know it’s an economic slam dunk for most homes. But we need to create a better system - both in terms of access to finance and more modern energy regulations - that allows more people to benefit from it.

• Email hello@rewiring.nz if you have any questions or to arrange an interview with Mike Casey.