The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
We should definitely be moving away from fossil fuel machines at the big end of town, and the LNG terminal has united almost everyone in opposition on both economic and environmental grounds. But raging against your fossil fuel machines at home and swapping them for better-performing electric options is one of the best ways to reduce your own household emissions.
When Mike Casey was setting up his cherry orchard near Cromwell, he thought all the trees that were being planted would suck up a lot of carbon. That did help, but once he crunched the numbers, he realised he wasn't focusing on the right thing. Instead of capturing carbon with trees, he needed to use machines that just didn't emit it.
That decision to shift way from expensive foreign molecules and instead run his business with cheaper local electrons and electric machines saves him tens of thousands of dollars each year on energy and has slashed the emissions on farm to almost nothing.
Many people still think recycling is the best response to climate change. Others who are more clued up on the science might avoid unnecessary flights, eat less meat or dairy, or choose to travel by foot, bike or public transport. We think a big part of the solution is for more people to electrify their machines, and many New Zealanders are not aware that the biggest emission savings in their own life are often hiding in plain sight - in their driveways, in their hot water cupboards, and in their kitchens.
To illustrate this, we decided to compare those machines with the emissions from something people can relate to: return flights between Queenstown and Auckland. And, over a lifetime, those numbers add up.
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Everyone is rocking on down to Electric Avenue today (this one online, not that other small one in Hagley Park in Christchurch), so let's ride the lightning: profits and electricity prices keep going up, as panels keep going down; a new paper puts a number on how much more homes with solar sell for; we're bottling things up with big and small batteries and they are eating into gas in Australia and California; transport emissions drop across the Tasman as a result of Government EV incentives, while HEB Construction electrifies its fleet; electrons are coming from above in China; and Xpeng announces the arrival of a crazy looking electric van/aircraft carrier.
Read moreDownloadWarren G and Nate Dogg said it best when they said: 'Regulators, mount up!' - and this week, they have.In a rare joint open letter, three different regulators - EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority - have basically told the lines companies to pull their socks up and make the most of ‘non-network solutions’ (AKA stop building more expensive poles and wires and start looking at customers and new technology as part of the solution!).
Read moreDownload"The LNG announcement from earlier this month has set the stage: electricity, and the energy sector more broadly, is set to be a major election issue this year. Casey has compared electricity to telecommunications, an area where services have become much cheaper in the last decade with technology advancing. “There are supply challenges for the grid and natural gas, and increasing pressure to find sustainable alternatives as reliance on fossil fuels becomes less viable,” he wrote in a Newsroom piece earlier this month, heralding the “electric election”.
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