Read our new Electric Homes and Vehicles report
It’s July 22, 2026, and plug-in solar panels are illegal in New Zealand. In 2012, WorkSafe announced a prohibition on the inverters required to make them work, citing “significant risks” of fire and serious harm. But advocates like Rewiring Aotearoa say that the 2012 ban was “written for cheap, unsafe devices that no longer exist on the market”. With the potential to reduce electricity bills by $300 to $400 per year per household, National, Labour and the Greens have now all expressed eagerness to update the regulations.
Read moreDownload the document hereElectric vehicles are increasingly pulling into New Zealand workshops - and mechanics need the right qualifications to work on them safely. High-voltage battery systems carry risks for untrained technicians, and as EVs become a larger share of the national fleet, workshops without qualified staff risk being left behind. Some vehicle manufacturers are also beginning to require demonstrated technician competency as a condition of warranty-related work - a trend that is expected to grow. Here's where the training is on offer.
Read moreDownloadSolar and storage on farms has been going off like a frog in a sock recently. And Federated Farmers has made it a big part of its election manifesto. While Wayne Langford recently missed out on a fourth term as president, he's a Bright Spark in our books for all the work he's done to get this issue on the political radar and help speed up adoption.
Read moreDownload"To emphasise both the risk and the opportunity for New Zealand’s political economy, the price of Brent crude hit US$100 a barrel again on Friday, which is likely to push petrol prices back towards $3.50/litre. But New Zealand’s uptake of EVs, home solar, home batteries and grid-scale solar and batteries is lagging far behind most other countries, who have incentives and national strategies to electrify fast."
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