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Homeowners with solar panels and batteries installed could be paid more to sell electricity back to the grid, reports TVNZ's Jessica Roden following the release of the Energy Competition Taskforce proposals. As Nelson solar installer Jon Pirie says in the piece, perfectly illustrating the 'neighbourhood effect', "year over year, people are more interested. They see the power bills going down and next thing the neighbours have got solar." Mike Casey also appears in the story saying anything we can do to incentivise customers to install their own generation and storage will help create the cheapest energy system.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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