The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Newstalk ZB's Ryan Bridge talks to Mike Casey about the launch of the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator (and announces his dream of getting solar panels on Mike Hosking's roof). As he said: "We think Queenstown is possibly the best opportunity we have to start trying out things and doing the real world action we need to quickly electrify a particular place. The business community is really aligned under the carbon zero 2030 targets set by council, the council is really aligned, and there are a lot of very active community members in this space who are super excited. Queenstown pays some of the highest energy prices in New Zealand, so it's a really good place to start and there are also problems with resilience from the Alpine Fault so it's a good idea to have Queenstown generating and storing energy itself and having machines that can use that energy." Listen from 11.20.
In the last Electric Avenue of 2025, we look at the two biggest trends in the world of energy; the Government goes electric for its fancy fleet upgrade; Nick Offerman offers his services to a US campaign extolling the virtues of EVs; Australia shows what's possible in new homes when you add solar, batteries and smart tech; a start-up selling portable solar and battery systems that wants it to be as easy and common as wi-fi; and The Lines Company looks to put some solar on the roof of the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.
Read moreDownloadWhen it comes to electric farming, "the numbers are becoming undeniable," says Nicholson Poultry's Jeff Collings. With 60kW of solar, a Nissan Leaf as a 'farm quad', electric mowers, an electric ute that can run a water blaster, and even a chicken manure scraper made out of a wrecked Tesla that, as Rewiring's Matt Newman says, looks a bit like something out of Mad Max, "almost everything is electric". There aren't many others in New Zealand who have gone this far down the electric road. And, with his electric Stark Varg, the fastest off-road motorbike in the world, he's obviously having plenty of fun on that road, too.
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