News & Updates
Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey joined RNZ's Emile Donovan to discuss one of the most important ideas from our recent policy manifesto: low-interest loans that will help accelerate electrification. He talks about why it's getting support, how the scheme will work, and how renters will benefit.
Our policy manifesto is aimed at all politicians, officials and regulators, but we’re laying down a particular challenge to the current Minister of Energy, Climate and Local Government Simon Watts, or as we have named him, MegaWatts. Here's how you can help.
If New Zealand is going to, as Sir Peter Blake almost said, make the electric boat go faster, we need all our politicians, regulators and officials onboard so we get the changes we need. There has been broad support for the manifesto and it was comforting to see the Electricity Authority come out so strongly in support of it.
Newsroom journalist Marc Daalder, who was facilitating the discussion on the first day of the Electrify Queenstown conference, reports on the Government's active consideration of one of the most critical proposals in Rewiring Aotearoa's manifesto: electrification loans (and not just for solar) for everyone.
In the introduction to Rewiring Aotearoa's policy manifesto, CEO Mike Casey laid out a vision for New Zealand's energy future. We can fiddle around the edges of a broken system and preserve the status quo, or we can be bold, modernise it now and reap massive economic and environmental benefits. The plan is achievable and affordable. We just need the political leadership to bring it to life.
In response to a critique of Rewiring Aotearoa's 'Watt Now?' explainers, Dr David Hall responds and explains why trying to reduce energy demand shouldn't be painted as the lesser of two evils.
Rewiring Aotearoa’s policy manifesto lays down a challenge to politicians, regulators and officials ahead of next year’s election and outlines an achievable and affordable plan to help address our cost of living, climate, productivity and energy security challenges.
Energy has been a huge issue for the New Zealand economy in recent years, and a growing concern for everyday New Zealanders, but there wasn’t a huge focus on it in the Budget. While we see this as a missed opportunity, Minister Simon Watts, Minister Shane Jones and their Cabinet colleagues have an opportunity to make up for it before next year’s election and, next week, Rewiring Aotearoa will show them how with the launch of our policy manifesto.
Meridian cuts the ribbon on its big new battery set-up at a place that's closely connected to fossil fuels; Aussie company AUSEV gets approval to send its tweaked electric Ford utes to New Zealand; Pivotal sends its electric ultralight flying machine skyward; Phoenix explains - and expands - its solar panel recycling scheme; and Octopus Energy announces a scheme in the UK where landlords and tenants can benefit from solar.
The IEA's EV outlook shows another big bump in global sales; research shows what to focus on if you want to promote EVs (even to the sceptics); New Zealand solar uptake has spiked but is still a long way behind other markets; the price of renewables continues to fall faster than governments predict; the company improving induction (and trying to sneak batteries into homes in appliances); and the companies recycling batteries to get the minerals we need for the electric transition (at lower cost than 'virgin' mining).
'You're asking me to use more electricity even though it's getting more expensive?' As you may have gathered, we're pro-electron here at Rewiring, but it's hard to get past this perception and, over the past couple of years, stories about cost increases and supply shortages have been in the news a lot. Not surprisingly, that's affecting the attitudes of New Zealanders and a recent survey from Octopus Energy showed that 85% of respondents were just as worried or more worried about the rising price of electricity this year and 70% thought the Government wasn’t doing enough to help address these costs.
Newsroom's Marc Daalder reports on the mysterious disappearing home solar incentives proposed by climate change minister Simon Watts to then energy minister Simeon Brown, while Mike Casey explains why solar subsidies aren't necessarily needed but would help drive demand among consumers and bolster our hydro storage.
The first complete inventory of all the fossil fuel machines in New Zealand has found there are over 10 million of them and 84% could be feasibly replaced with electric machines that are available in the country today.
It's been a big week for Rewiring Aotearoa with the launch of the Machine Count and there's plenty of electric momentum elsewhere, too, as Tasmanian company Incat launches the world's biggest electric boat, Old Blighty backs Old Brighty with a policy to put solar on all new builds, a Swiss company's mission to add solar panels to the country's railway network and a helpful (satirical) app that allows you to 'meditate through the meltdown' and 'push down the climate anxiety'.
Tirau chicken farmer Jeff Collings talked to us for our Machine Count report and we thought his story deserved a bit more attention, so it was great to hear him interviewed by Jesse Mulligan on RNZ.
"84% of the country’s machines had mainstream electric alternatives that were cost-competitive or cheaper over their lifetimes, and already available for purchase in New Zealand. The included space heaters, water heaters and small and medium cars." EECA’s Megan Hurnard said: “Replacing outdated machines with the same inefficient models risks locking in higher running costs, poor performance, and greater exposure to fuel price volatility."
Whether you're in it for the economics or the emissions, upgrading to electric machines works - and it works particularly well in New Zealand, where we have lots of relatively cheap electricity and very expensive fossil fuels. Rewiring Aotearoa believes this transition is inevitable, primarily because it's crazy to use machines that cost more to do the same job and, increasingly, that's the case with fossil fuelled machines. Farmers and businesses are starting to grasp this, but Mike Hosking has a wee way to go. He discussed the Machine Count report on his Breakfast show. So do you agree with Mike Hosking ("Pointless. Waste of time. Nothing's changed) or Mike Casey ("We can solve climate and save everyone money")? Listen to Hosking's take on the Machine Count from 59.40.
The Post's Alka Prasad reports on Rewiring Aotearoa's Machine Count project, which found that "Aotearoa has over 10 million fossil fuel machines - those powered by petrol, diesel, gas and other fuels - that could switch to renewable energy and save the country 7.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year. But researchers quantifying this task found electrifying major agribusiness machinery was still difficult, especially in New Zealand, and at present, prohibitively expensive."
RNZ's Eloise Gibson reports on Rewiring Aotearoa's Machine Count report, which showed that New Zealand has 10 million fossil-fuelled machines, and more than 80 percent of them could be replaced by electric alternatives. [The report] found upgrading six million of the most easily 'electrifiable' machines in the country - including cars, heaters, lawnmowers, road bikes, ovens and stoves - would save the country approximately $8 million a day, or $3.7 billion each year.
New research from Rewiring Aotearoa has shown over three quarters of the country’s ten million fossil fuel machines could be replaced cost-effectively with electric equivalents right now.
Resilience from solar and batteries comes to the fore after more severe weather events, big overseas outages and fossil fuel issues; Australia's electric election offers a glimpse at what next year might look like in New Zealand; US students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute need your help to improve their electrification dashboard; a new 'radically affordable' and 'radically personalisable' EV ute (and its unhinged ad) is launched in the US; and what needs to change so we can re-use big EV batteries in other ways.
Rewiring Aotearoa is supportive of the Innovation and non-traditional solutions allowance (INTSA) and the development of Guidance for submissions. Read our full submission by downloading the document.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadWhile the potential implications of the Bill are wide-ranging, our submission has focused on the potential implications for the electrification of Aotearoa NZ if the Bill is enacted as proposed. This is pertinent to Rewiring’s work, because one of our core aims is to help reduce energy bills for customers - NZ’s households, farms, and businesses. Significant changes are needed to fix the status quo, and we are concerned that the Bill may inadvertently bake in the existing rules governing the sector.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadRewiring Aotearoa is supportive of the development of Publicly Available Specification for Residential solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems guidelines. These guidelines can provide a consolidated and trusted source of information to help households navigate the process of choosing and installing solar PV and batteries. There is some messaging and information in the PAS that we think needs to be changed or added to provide households with the best advice to support them to maximise benefits from solar PV and batteries. This includes removing the focus on pay back periods and informing households about cost savings from day one from solar PV and batteries financed over the life of the system. Households also need information about the potential risks of some existing lease to own sales models which provide little real benefit to households with the bulk of the savings captured in suppliers profits. Download the document to read our full submission.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadIn a cross-submission, Rewiring Aotearoa has responded to a range of concerns raised by other submitters in the Energy Competition Task Force's consulation.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadWe support the role that government procurement can play in benefitting every community across the motu. We agree that simplifying and streamlining the procurement process is important, and reducing rules is a logical starting point. However, this should not undermine key considerations and past efforts in ensuring government spending supports long-term positive outcomes. Government procurement can support us to go for growth by increasing productivity of energy, which is a fundamental economic input
Read moreShareable linkDownloadOverall, Rewiring Aotearoa welcomes the objectives of this package of proposals. from the Energy Competition Task Force. We view the package as a critical step in improving energy system outcomes for all consumers. We consider retailers paying consumers fairly as a critical step, and we are mostly satisfied with the Task Force’s approach to this (initiative 2C) and think it will create better outcomes for New Zealand consumers and the energy system as a whole. In contrast, the Task Force’s preferred option around how distributors are required to reward peak input from consumers (initiative 2A) will not in our view meet the Task Force’s (or the Electricity Authority’s) stated objectives.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadFocusing on the emissions reductions at home through electrification is a major opportunity (and challenge) for Aotearoa NZ. Homes, farms, and businesses must play a role in driving emissions reductions through electrification and the potential must be recognised and addressed to our 2035 international climate change target.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadRewiring Aotearoa believes we need to make better use of our existing infrastrucuture, see customers as an essential part of a 21st Century energy system and that electrification will lead to much greater energy security and resilience.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadRewiring Aotearoa's submission to the Electricity Authority on its Network Connections Project - Stage One is in and it is good to see the Authority practicing its statutory objective of protecting the interests of consumers.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadThe Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment opened consultation on a discussion document about amendments to the Electricity Safety Regulations to expand the permitted voltage range for electricity supply. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission believes changes are needed to prepare for the rapid adoption of customer energy resources, and electricity distribution companies need to be compelled to allow export limits to be increased.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadThe Department for Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry for the Environment proposed a topic for a Long Term Insights Briefing entitled 'Everyone plays a part: building New Zealand’s resilience in the context of global trends and our unique natural environment'. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission says energy security and resilience, critical infrastructure failing and commodity/energy price shocks are especially important for Aotearoa NZ’s resilience to future challenges, and farms can also play an important role.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadOur ERP2 submission outlines what we think needs to be done to improve the Government's plan to reach our climate targets, electrify the Aotearoa New Zealand economy and build a fairer future energy system for New Zealanders that saves people money and does not leave anyone behind.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadThere is a relevant saying: ‘Information wants to be free’. While the proposed Consumer and Data Product Bill takes a step in that direction, it does not offer the level of freedom that could be technically accomplished, nor the level of freedom that is likely to unlock the maximum level of innovation.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadRakiura / Stewart Island faces the highest electricity prices in New Zealand. Successive governments have funded report after report and numerous fly-in visits by Ministers have failed to change this situation for the local community. Rewiring Aotearoa believes the opportunity is to harness existing solar and battery technology to deliver significant cost-of-living savings and reduced emissions at scale via electrification on Stewart Island right now. With financed solar and batteries, electricity usage costs for residents could be halved without delay. Rewiring Aotearoa has been engaging with the local community, who have been sending us their power bills. On Saturday 27th April some of the Rewiring team visited Stewart Island (including Mike Rewi who has strong whakapapa to Stewart Island). What we are hearing from this community is many locals fear the proposals and the likely “preferred option” will be focused on replacing current diesel generators, not on reducing the cost of energy for consumers. Our proposal outlines Rewiring Aotearoa’s pitch for an alternative approach to develop a community-led energy solution for the Island.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadOverall, we encourage the Commission to think beyond competition merely as a driver for innovation, to consider the outcomes from innovation for the long term benefit for New Zealanders. Rewiring Aotearoa believes one such outcome from market innovation is supporting the electrification opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand. The Commission has the opportunity to play an active role in driving this not just through the energy market, but also through the personal banking market. It is important that these functions are not seen in isolation, but as a system, to better realise the Commission's role in delivering on NZ’s emissions reduction plan, and 2050 Nationally Determined Contribution.
Read moreShareable linkDownload18 March 2024: New Zealand is one of the first places in the world where electric appliances and vehicles are now more affordable than their fossil fuel equivalents. A new report has shown that, on average, homes currently using gas appliances and petrol vehicles could save thousands every year if they went electric and got their electricity from a combination of rooftop solar, home battery and New Zealand’s already highly renewable grid.
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In this future, consumer infrastructure needs to compete on a level playing field with traditional infrastructure – if a $10,000 battery on a consumer’s premises can provide the same service as a $20,000 supply-side asset (a network or generation investment), the consumer’s asset should be selected for the service. However, today there is a systemic bias towards traditional infrastructure largely because it is seen as significantly more ‘dependable’. There are a variety of historical reasons for this. Our primary context to this submission is that many of the assumptions and rationale for this bias are quickly falling away, and DPP4 provides a significant opportunity for the Commerce Commission (the Commission) to reset the assumptions and correct some of this bias.
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The EA has the ability to take a leadership role in the energy transition on behalf of electricity consumers. Far more than the Commerce Commission’s oversight of EDBs investment plans, the EA’s network pricing workplan gives consumers agency in the development of the electricity system. When consumer agency is stifled, they will likely have significantly worse financial outcomes on their bills. Much of the necessary changes have been demonstrated already locally or overseas, and the remaining question is not if the changes are possible but if we as a nation will have the courage to implement them on the timeline required to drive better energy transition outcomes for consumers.
Read moreShareable linkDownloadWhen it comes to our energy system, we could do the bare minimum and pay the price, or we could think ahead and reap the rewards. Here's what both of those options could look like in 2030.
Read moreYou will always have to pay for an energy subscription. Using renewable electricity in electric machines (and ideally running on the sun) is the cheapest energy subscription you can get. Here's how the numbers stack up.
Read morePlenty of people need cars (and plenty of people still want them), and other vehicles are literal engines of prosperity. We don't have to give them up to reach our climate goals. We just need them to be electric.
Read moreSolar on our rooftops, farms and businesses can displace the emissions generated by burning fossil fuels in our homes and especially our cars, provide the extra electricity we need to run our electric machines, help bring the cost of electricity down for everyone on the network, and improve our energy security by keeping water in our hydro lakes for when we need it most.
Read moreWe often hear from people who aren’t sure if switching to an electric alternative is the right move. One of the most common questions we get asked is ‘will switching to an electric machine actually reduce my carbon footprint if creating the new machine or materials produces emissions?’It’s a fair question, and we completely agree it’s important to think about the full life cycle of the products we buy and use. Electric alternatives, including vehicles, often produce more emissions than fossil fuel equivalents during manufacturing. But, over the lifetime of the machine, they create much less carbon pollution because they don't burn any fuel.
Read moreFossil fuels for homes, transport and industrial processes make up the vast majority of the country’s total energy consumption. Electrifying the machines that use these fossil fuels means we will use more electricity but much less energy overall.
Read moreAn electrified energy system is actually full of opportunities for redesign, reuse, recovery and recycling. There are opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs to generate value across the lifespan of every energy asset, not least the return of its components to the manufacturing cycle. To explore this further, Rewiring Aotearoa has partnered with Circularity, local experts in circular design and strategy, to explain what the circular economy is, how to integrate circularity into the design of energy systems, and the role of policy strategy to make it happen.
Read moreThere are no free lunches in energy. But some lunches are far, far cheaper than others. Electrifying everything will massively reduce the overall material and energy requirements of the global energy system. This can be said with high confidence. To be sure, renewable energy systems take materials and energy to build. But this is dwarfed by the mind-boggling scale of extraction, consumption and wastefulness of fossil energy.
Read morePeople sometimes talk about ‘carbon tunnel vision’ – that is, the single-minded pursuit of emission reductions at the sake of everything else. But this is the wrong way to think about electrification. It isn’t only about emissions (even though preventing the world from dangerous overheating is quite the co-benefit). It isn’t only about the tech or the kit: the rooftop solar panels, the batteries, the electrified appliances and vehicles. These are just the means to an end. Electrification is about people and it is a fundamentally better way to power our lives and livelihoods.
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The rise (and savings) of hot water heat pumps, Fisher & Paykel creates a one-stop-electrification shop, thinking fast and slow on World EV Day, Tesla gets into the train game, Vessev's beautiful boat, Toyota's white elephant, and one positive aspect of keeping up with the Joneses.
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We've filled our electric boots this week with more good news for EV seekers as the upfront costs keep dropping, the EV that has been around the world about 50 times, grid-scale batteries are on the rise and the world's biggest one is equal to about 130 million laptop batteries, restaurants in New Orleans are being given solar panels to help the community out in case of hurricanes, and a spicy electricity-related letter to the editor.
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A cornucopia of electrification optimism this week, with Ubco inking a big deal in Australia, FTN Motion also getting set to head across the Tasman, Octopus Energy's founder Greg Jackson on the new champ in energy town, David Wallace-Wells looks at what we will do with all our 'free' solar power, and Germany shows how loosening up permits for renewables has led to a huge and rapid boost of energy supply.
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More news, views and hullaballoos from the world of electrification, with a big event next week spelling out the economic opportunity for New Zealand; red states embracing solar and coppers embracing EVs in the US; Norway getting close to 100% on EVs; hydrogen cars sucking; Europe looking to the sky to get off Russian gas; and exciting news for e-bike entrepreneurs and explorers.
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We're all charged up this week with some more big - and magical - machines; one of the best looking caravans we've ever seen (plus some EV towing info); how the big batteries in these big machines are starting to play a role in the energy system; a solar breakthrough that might allow us to put solar cells on our clothes, mobiles or cars; and if you liked the movie Don’t Look Up, you might be into a new play at Silo Theatre called Scenes From The Climate Era.
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EVs cross a big tipping point in China and upfront costs are expected to keep falling this year; sales of gas hot water systems decline in New Zealand for the first time in ten years; 'why the solar industrial revolution is the biggest investment opportunity in history' and opens up some amazing possibilities; the many benefits of induction cooktops; and Australian comedian Tom Gleeson explains why big power companies might want to put some solar panels on their power stations.
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In this week's best of, a report showing that batteries beat oil by a long way when it comes to mining, EV sales in New Zealand still growing (and sun is an excellent fuel in Africa), the amazing electric machines currently being built in China, a handy video explainer on the concept of useful energy, and a classic Nissan Leaf commercial that makes you think about the machines that still burn fossil fuel.
Read moreA new electric dumper in Wellington and new electric buses in Christchurch, an energy hardship project with real world data, a novel scheme in some US resort towns that makes up for outdoor energy use, Rivian's very appealing new charging outpost and easily the best love song we've ever heard.
Read moreEarning a place on this week's electrification podium, Auckland's new electric bus hub (and Palmerston North's big electric bus investment), Germany's new law enshrining solar rights and how tenants can benefit from publicly-owned panels in Zurich, an Australian experiment shows how EVs could play a role during grid emergencies (and why we need smart charging to reduce stress on the grid), and the inside story of New York's first all-electric skyscraper.
Read moreThe cup runneth over with good electrification news and this week's selection features EVs becoming cheaper than fossil cars in China, a promising peer-to-peer electricity sharing scheme on Aotea / Great Barrier Island, massive growth in renewable generation (and massive opportunity for New Zealand to become the Saudi Arabia of renewable electricity), Energy Mad reaches a milestone, and a special electric toy for the snow lovers.
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Introducing Bright Sparks, a new regular feature where we shine a light on some of the country's electrification heroes.
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New Zealand cherry grower Mike Casey runs what is considered to be the world's first fully electric farm.
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