Kerre Woodham: Bring on the solar

Everybody's into the solar energy now. National announced its solar energy policy last week and most people thought it was a sound idea, good common-sense idea. The party, if elected, would launch the Home Energy Fund by tweaking the Local Government Act and committing a one-off $7 million equity investment to secure a 20% shareholding in the new entity with the balance funded by participating councils. 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. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from NEWSTALKSDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Everybody's into the solar energy Now. National announced its solar
energy policy last week and most people thought it was
a sound idea, good common sense idea. The party, if elected,
would launch the Home Energy Fund by tweaking the Local
Government Act and committing a one off seven million dollar
equity investment to secure a twenty percent shareholding in the

(00:35):
new entity, with the balance funded by participating councils. So
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 rooftops, solar

(00:57):
and batteries, heat pumps, insulation, efficient electric appliances, and other
approved energy resilience upgrades. So 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

(01:18):
if you are a good landlord and you want to
keep good tenants, you'd put that in because that would
help the tenants 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

(01:39):
worry about that now, because along comes Labor 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

(02:03):
three thousand dollars for low and middle income house 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 three to
four hundred dollars a year from their power bills. But,

(02:24):
and it is a big butt work Safe 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 in it or
inverted directly into a standard three pin plug is considered illegal.

(02:45):
And a serious safety risk. So Labor says, yes, okay,
well we know that and we acknowledge that we hold up.
They want to have major parts of the package rolled
out within twelve months of being elected, but they acknowledge
that's going to be an issue and National has recognized
that too. Energy Minister Simeon Brown says he's asked officials
to explore what standards need to be changed to legalize

(03:09):
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
pass straight off the shelf, rather than being locked up
by rules that haven't kept pace with the technology. And
he's quite right, we're all on board. Everybody's keen to

(03:33):
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 Chloe Swarbrick says, and I'm not sure how many
times I've said that phrase on this show over the years,

(03:54):
As Chloe Swarbrick, the leader of the Green says, if
we're all on board. Why do we have to wait
till after the election to make it all happen. Parliament
can lower New Zealander's power bills and reduce emission before
the election kicks in. Chloees Is now both the Red
Team and the Blue Team have announced their support. There's

(04:15):
no reason we can't progress on a cross part as
an 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 cloud
here 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

(04:36):
solar units safe. We don't want to plug them all
in all enthusiastically whip out to mater ten 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
till after the election. A good idea is not going

(04:58):
to get any better if it just states for six months.
Let's start making it Happen Now. And I really like
the idea of like, I'm heading up to the hooky
hanger after work and the balcony solar units or the
plug and battery unit would be perfect up there. We
don't have much to run, fridge, the ovens, gas, got

(05:20):
a wood burner, you know, it would be absolutely perfect.
Bring it on and on with Chloe s Warbrick, Make
it Happen Now.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
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