Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
For a minute there you couldn’t move for political parties pledging the path to a solar future. The Greens, Labour and National have all set out policies to make domestic installation of panels affordable, whether through cheap loans, subsidies, or a mix of both. For Act, the focus is dismantling regulatory hurdles. Across all the initiatives, you can see the fingerprints of Rewiring Aotearoa and its CEO, Mike Casey. For the last three years, the nonprofit charity has been advancing the case for a more electric New Zealand, with an emphasis on rooftop solar, making its arguments using methods ranging from data-heavy documentation to giving politicians a hoon on an electric tractor at Casey’s 100% electric cherry orchard in Central Otago.
Read moreDownload the document hereAustralia 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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