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"A cheaper, cleaner and more cheerful alternative".
As the report says:
New Zealand will need to dramatically upscale its electricity generation capacity in coming years, with solar set to play a starring role.
And for good reason. Solar is clean, with zero emissions. It is also adaptable. Solar can be installed anywhere and can be configured in many different ways. As such, it not only promotes energy self-sufficiency, but also community resilience to extreme weather and seismic events. It’s also cost effective. Upfront capital costs of solar continue to fall, while operating costs remain minimal. Solar also generates co-investment opportunities for a range of landowners and businesses, including Māori and Iwi.
Not surprisingly, we think the outlook for solar is promising. So do others. Work done by MBIE suggests that solar electricity generation could rise ten-fold by 2050, putting it on par with geothermal and wind. As such solar is set to be an important part of the energy mix.
That doesn’t mean though that there are not challenges. Regulatory reform has a role to play in encouraging investment in solar to achieve this type of growth. Upcoming changes to the Resource Management Act and the Overseas Investment Act, for example, should help to minimise compliance costs and make it easier for on- and offshore investors to invest in solar power, especially utility-scale solar.
Addressing the intermittency of solar is also important. Battery storage should be the answer. The issue though seems to be cost. While the cost of batteries has tracked lower over time, they remain an obstacle for many.
The national electricity grid needs to be able to handle potential intra-day mismatches between the supply and demand for electricity that can be exacerbated by solar. That should mean more investment in systems that dynamically balance supply and demand for electricity.
Community opposition is also something to consider, especially when it comes to solar farms. Early/ongoing stakeholder engagement and clarifying the benefits of having cheap distributed power is key. Finally, there is the issue of obtaining finance, which can be difficult especially for larger solar farms if there are no power purchasing or off-take agreements in place.
Despite these challenges, we believe that solar power has the potential to transform our energy future, delivering lower cost, lower emissions and more reliable energy solutions for New Zealanders.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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