Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
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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Australia reaches a milestone in August, with more new electric cars sold than petrol cars; another new study shows EV batteries last longer than the myths have made out; Heart Aerospace sends the world's heaviest electric plane skywards; China's massive mining machine hits the dirt; and we've fully embraced heat pumps to warm the air, now they're coming for our water.
Read moreDownloadNew Zealand spends about as much on petrol and diesel as it earns exporting concentrated milk. Mike Casey says that money leaves the country, and most of it does not have to. He runs a cherry orchard in Central Otago on 21 electric machines, and a $50,000 diesel bill became a $25,000 revenue stream before financing costs. What I Asked Mike👉 How much money does New Zealand lose every year buying fuel from offshore?👉 What did it actually cost to electrify 21 machines?👉 What is the real payback period, machine by machine?👉 What can you do if you lease your building and cannot touch the roof?👉 Who should not do this?
Read moreDownloadA pinch and a punch (and a big bunch of new EVs) for the first of the month. The Rewiring gang is always pretty jazzed about the release of the new car sales numbers each month and, while the short-term stats tend to bounce around a bit, the long-term trend is clear: sales of new EVs are up by 150% year to date and sales of new petrol vehicles are down by 15% in the same period.
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