The Home Energy Fund, inspired by Local Government New Zealand's ratepayer assistance scheme, would allow property owners to obtain low interest loans secured against their property to be paid off over time through their rates over ten years. And it was intended to help fund the installation of rooftop solar and batteries, heat pumps, insulation, efficient electric appliances, and other approved energy resilience upgrades. Good common sense.
However, there were a few callers and texters to the show who said, “Well, what about the renters?" And I said, “Well, surely if you are a good landlord and you want to keep good tenants, you'd put that in because that would help the tenant save money and surely that would be seen as, if the landlords had to sell the house, then it would be seen as an asset having the solar energy on the roof." Well, you don't have to worry about that now because along comes Labour with its solar energy policy. Announced yesterday, the Solar Saver policy pledges a series of initiatives aimed at boosting the use of solar, one of those being the introduction of plug in battery units, sometimes known as balcony solar, widely used in the UK and Germany. The party's pledging loans of up to $3,000 for low- and middle-income households to purchase the portable units. Perfect for renters, they can move their solar energy plug in unit when they move houses, and it's estimated that they could save about $300 to $400 a year from their power bills. But, and it is a big but, WorkSafe has prohibited the use of a particular inverter found in plug in solar systems, which means right now the systems can't be used in New Zealand. Plugging a solar panel or inverter directly into a standard three pin plug is considered illegal and a serious safety risk.
Labour says “yes, well we know that and we acknowledge there'll be a hold up." They want to have major parts of the package rolled out within 12 months of being elected, but they acknowledge that's going to be an issue, and National has recognised that too. Energy Minister Simeon Brown says he's asked officials to explore what standards need to be changed to legalise the plug-in solar units. He says the principle's simple: in a country with the sunshine hours we have, Kiwi households and businesses should be able to generate their own power straight off the shelf rather than being locked out by rules that haven't kept pace with the technology. And he's quite right. We're all on board. Everybody's keen to have the solar energy and the renewables and take the load off the heavy, heavy power bills that many households are experiencing right now in the depths of winter. But as Chlöe Swarbrick says, and I'm not sure how many times I've said that phrase on this show over the years, as Chlöe Swarbrick, the leader of the Greens says, “if we're all on board, why do we have to wait until after the election to make it all happen?" Parliament can lower New Zealanders' power bills and reduce emissions before the election kicks in. Chlöe says now both the red team and the blue team have announced their support, there's no reason we can't progress on a cross-partisan agreement to do this right now. And why wouldn't we?
I suppose because we haven't got many sunshine hours at the moment as we're flooding and raining and cloudy and unable to hang the washing on the line, but why wouldn't we do it now? Why do we have to wait? I mean, there is going to be the faffing around as we try and make the balcony solar units safe. We don't want to plug them all in, all enthusiastically whip out to Mitre 10 and Bunnings to get our balcony solar units, plug them all in and blow the national grid. We don't want to do that. But she has a point – we don't have to wait until after the election. A good idea is not going to get any better if it gestates for six months. Let's start making it happen now. And I really like the idea of, like, I'm heading up to the Hokianga after work, and the balcony solar units or the plug in battery unit would be perfect up there. We don't have much to run: fridge, the oven's gas, we've got a wood burner. It would be absolutely perfect. Bring it on and I'm with Chlöe Swarbrick. Make it happen now.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
However, there were a few callers and texters to the show who said, “Well, what about the renters?" And I said, “Well, surely if you are a good landlord and you want to keep good tenants, you'd put that in because that would help the tenant save money and surely that would be seen as, if the landlords had to sell the house, then it would be seen as an asset having the solar energy on the roof." Well, you don't have to worry about that now because along comes Labour with its solar energy policy. Announced yesterday, the Solar Saver policy pledges a series of initiatives aimed at boosting the use of solar, one of those being the introduction of plug in battery units, sometimes known as balcony solar, widely used in the UK and Germany. The party's pledging loans of up to $3,000 for low- and middle-income households to purchase the portable units. Perfect for renters, they can move their solar energy plug in unit when they move houses, and it's estimated that they could save about $300 to $400 a year from their power bills. But, and it is a big but, WorkSafe has prohibited the use of a particular inverter found in plug in solar systems, which means right now the systems can't be used in New Zealand. Plugging a solar panel or inverter directly into a standard three pin plug is considered illegal and a serious safety risk.
Labour says “yes, well we know that and we acknowledge there'll be a hold up." They want to have major parts of the package rolled out within 12 months of being elected, but they acknowledge that's going to be an issue, and National has recognised that too. Energy Minister Simeon Brown says he's asked officials to explore what standards need to be changed to legalise the plug-in solar units. He says the principle's simple: in a country with the sunshine hours we have, Kiwi households and businesses should be able to generate their own power straight off the shelf rather than being locked out by rules that haven't kept pace with the technology. And he's quite right. We're all on board. Everybody's keen to have the solar energy and the renewables and take the load off the heavy, heavy power bills that many households are experiencing right now in the depths of winter. But as Chlöe Swarbrick says, and I'm not sure how many times I've said that phrase on this show over the years, as Chlöe Swarbrick, the leader of the Greens says, “if we're all on board, why do we have to wait until after the election to make it all happen?" Parliament can lower New Zealanders' power bills and reduce emissions before the election kicks in. Chlöe says now both the red team and the blue team have announced their support, there's no reason we can't progress on a cross-partisan agreement to do this right now. And why wouldn't we?
I suppose because we haven't got many sunshine hours at the moment as we're flooding and raining and cloudy and unable to hang the washing on the line, but why wouldn't we do it now? Why do we have to wait? I mean, there is going to be the faffing around as we try and make the balcony solar units safe. We don't want to plug them all in, all enthusiastically whip out to Mitre 10 and Bunnings to get our balcony solar units, plug them all in and blow the national grid. We don't want to do that. But she has a point – we don't have to wait until after the election. A good idea is not going to get any better if it gestates for six months. Let's start making it happen now. And I really like the idea of, like, I'm heading up to the Hokianga after work, and the balcony solar units or the plug in battery unit would be perfect up there. We don't have much to run: fridge, the oven's gas, we've got a wood burner. It would be absolutely perfect. Bring it on and I'm with Chlöe Swarbrick. Make it happen now.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
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