Read our new Electric Homes and Vehicles report
Rewiring Aotearoa's Investing in Tomorrow report shined a light on the multi-billion dollar opportunity in front of New Zealand if we rapidly electrify our homes and cars. Danyl McLauchlan's latest column (paywalled) in The Listener examines what's stopping that opportunity from being realised (hint: incumbent interests and a profitable status quo being protected by industry lobbyists "swarming the Beehive like flies around a dead cat"). As he writes: "Eventually, someone will have to notice tens of billions of dollars lying on the ground, just waiting to be picked up – even if political expedience and ideological dogma are screaming at them to ignore it."
Read moreDownload the document hereWhen 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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