July 1, 2026 • 8 mins
The ongoing situation in the Middle East has sparked debate about increased use of renewable energy, according to one expert.
Mike Casey is the CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa, a New Zealand charity dedicated to electrifying millions of fossil fuel machines and boosting renewable energy.
He joined the Afternoons team to discuss the changing attitudes around this technology.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Talking about the uptake of solar and evisus after a
recent study claim that by fitting your home out with
solar panels and swapping to an electric vehicle could save
you three thousand bucks a year. But just how much
is the solar uptake actually increasing? Joining us now is
Mike Casey, CEO of Rewiring Altero at Gette mic.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Lads, how are we very good?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Thanks for chatting to us. It's the price of a
solar set up coming down in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
It is coming down in price, and I think, combined
with all of the nasty stuff happening overseas, tyrant starting wars,
I think we're starting to realize more and more that
are generating our own energy is far better than buying
it from overseas.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
How viable is an ev home solar set up where
you got the ev in the garage or the driveway
and you're powering that in your house with solar.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So basically what we're advising New Zealanders is we want
them to make six good decisions in the next ten years,
which basically means the next time it comes to buying
a new machine for your home, whether it's your car,
whether it's your hot water system or your cook top
or whatever, it might be, now the time to make
it electric. Because pretty much and almost all circumstances, the
lifetime cost of buying an electric machine will be cheaper
(01:27):
than the.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Fossil fuel machine.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
And then when you're ready, throwing some solur on the
roof and a battery in the garage it only helps
with those savings.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So are we close to some kind of tipping point
in which this EV solar setup moves away from being
you know, the rich person moral signaling signaling choice market
and becomes a mainstream decision, a money decision.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I took David Seymour for a joy ride and one
of the fastest evs in New Zealand a couple of
months back, and his line in this whole process, he
was giggling like a schoolboy driving up the remarkable ski
road in this electric vehicle, and the line that I
just love that he put out was is it's not
woke if it works. And there's just so many demonstrations
(02:12):
now around New Zealand of people pretty much eliminating their
energy bills or coming very close to eliminating their energy
bills by doing so. The issue is probably at the
moment that you know, there is still an upfront capital
cost which means only certain households and families can access
this technology. And so one of the big things we're
all about is trying to find new exciting ways of
allowing more entry for more New Zealanders, whether that's through
(02:34):
finance like the what the National Party just announced their
home Energy fund, right through to things like plug and solar,
which obviously has a much lower price point than a
professional installation on your rooth.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
What's it there with line fees and you know, pumping
excess eleuctricy back into the grid? Is that a realistic
thing in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It is a realistic thing in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
And that's another thing that's actually just been announced very
recently is making sure that the big energy players pay
fairly for the energy that is being pumped by customers
back into the grid. You might have seen that announcement
only a couple of months ago. Gone to the days
where you know energy providers will only pay you eight
cents of killer what hour when they're charging you forty
per cent of killer what out and take it from
(03:14):
the grid. That is going to start getting a lot
better now, which is which is pretty exciting, but line's
fees are still an issue. We've got to figure out
the future energy system of New Zealand and how that
is to be priced appropriately. We want people to stay
on the grid. The cheapest energy you're ever going to
get is energy from your own rooftop. The second cheapest
energy you're ever going to get it should be energy
(03:34):
from your neighbor's rooftop. So we want people to stay
connected to the grid, and we certainly don't want to
drive them off by skyrocketing it for structure costs.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
That's for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Is anywhere in New Zealand that doesn't have enough sun
year around to run solar.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
This is the thing right land of the long White Cloud.
For a long time, I think we've tricked ourselves into
thinking it's not sunny, even though we have one of
the largest melanoma rates in the world and we're incredibly
good at farming, which kind of goes against that. And
I think when you see the efficiency of the gains now,
I mean, we do not have as great a solar
yield as Australia, but we have very, very decent solar yield.
(04:10):
And to put it in perspective, if you finance solar
on your rooftop at you know, five point five percent
on the standard mortgage rate, you're probably generating electricity at
like eleven cents of killer what hour. You're probably buying
it from the grid at forty cents a killer what hour.
The Australians might you know, be able to do that
at six or seven cents of killer what hour. The
narrative doesn't really change. This is still the cheapest energy
(04:31):
by a country mile.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And what's the deal with balcony solar? So people can
run it in townhouses and apartments? Why can't we get
that here?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Mike, Well, that's the super exciting thing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Part of going for a joy ride with David Seymour
was to get him to think about unlocking a whole
bunch of this new technology for New Zealander's He's now
got the goal of making solar installations or New Zealand
the most efficient place in the world to instill solar.
That's a really good initiative because it's going to help
all New Zealands get into this stuff, and one of
(05:02):
those key things is plug and solar For those that
don't know what that is. You should be able to
go down to Bunning soon, buy a solar panel and
plug it into your normal wall socket with you within
your home and immediately start generating energy to save on
your power bills.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And we think it could save seven.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
To fourteen percent for most households in New Zealand, which
is not insignificant with the price of power bills where
they're at.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
And so this note that's just you just go down
and you buy it and you plug it in and
you don't have to have a conversation with anyone else.
That's just your decision.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Correct. Currently illegal in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think we've got, you know, cross party support for
approving it, and so really my goal is to hopefully
get this approved before the election. If not, then obviously
after the election will get the job done and more
and more New Zealanders will have access to this technology
and be able to save money.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, So is that a big part of it, Mike.
You know, we've heard from people with they had issues
with Heritage House and regulations and consent is just about
councils and government getting out of the way.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Yeah, essentially, right, Like the way that I like to
say it is, we want to get the government off
everyone's roofs. We want them to be able to do
this stuff really, you know, really easily. We've been fighting
really hard for announcements that have come through around for
farmers in particular, who had all sorts of issues with
the resource can consent that varied wildly from council to council.
We've got things out of the line like no consents
(06:18):
on pre consented buildings, you know, no tax for households
on exporting powerbacks to the grid. We are changing this
energy system really really quickly now. And what I think
everyone is starting to realize is just it doesn't really
matter what you think about things like climate. Everybody wins
in the scenario. It drops emissions, it drops that, it
fixes our current account, it saves people money. What's not
(06:41):
to like about this new tech?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Really?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And finally, how far away is corrugated solar for heritage times?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Do you know what?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I actually couldn't tell you tell you that, but hopefully
not too long. I might actually look into that because
if that's something that we need to get over the line.
Have you got a herotach home yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Ah, I've got a mountain in Bungalow, but I've got
enough backyard roofage to consider so solo out the back,
but you know, some people out the front, yep your
camouflage solar solar if it's that much of a problem.
One thing is I just don't see solar as being
as ugly as obviously some of these heritage decisions. I
think it is.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
But I think solar is really much in vogue, whereas
a few years ago it wasn't right. And I think
more and more New Zealanders is just realizing how much
of a slam dunk it is. It's like having your
own private oil well and refinery on your rooftop, especially
if you're whacking it into your new electric use or
your electric vehicle or whatever it might be. And I
think that's just enough to get people over the line.
I'll have a look at that heritage stuff and get
(07:37):
back to you on that front, because in all honesty,
you know, we've got to get everyone across the line,
and that includes people like Ryan Bridge and Mike Hosking
who I've been egging on for a long time to
put solo on the roofs.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So we'll see where we get to. Eh.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, if you crack the corrugated iron panels, just give
us a buzz back. Matt Heath will be a silent partner.
That sounds like a good business, fellas, and.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Also we'll do I also like the idea of drill
baby drill on my roof as well. See if there's
any oil up there.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
It's a far better way to go, isn't it guaranteed results?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Unlike drilling for oil, that's for sure. It seems to be.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Mike, great to catch up. Thank you very much for
giving us your time.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Oh, no worries, thanks for having me on. We'll talk
to That is.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Mike Casey, CEO of Rewiring Altos.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Talking about the uptake of solar and evisus after a
recent study claim that by fitting your home out with
solar panels and swapping to an electric vehicle could save
you three thousand bucks a year. But just how much
is the solar uptake actually increasing? Joining us now is
Mike Casey, CEO of Rewiring Altero at Gette mic.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Lads, how are we very good?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Thanks for chatting to us. It's the price of a
solar set up coming down in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
It is coming down in price, and I think, combined
with all of the nasty stuff happening overseas, tyrant starting wars,
I think we're starting to realize more and more that
are generating our own energy is far better than buying
it from overseas.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
How viable is an ev home solar set up where
you got the ev in the garage or the driveway
and you're powering that in your house with solar.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
So basically what we're advising New Zealanders is we want
them to make six good decisions in the next ten years,
which basically means the next time it comes to buying
a new machine for your home, whether it's your car,
whether it's your hot water system or your cook top
or whatever, it might be, now the time to make
it electric. Because pretty much and almost all circumstances, the
lifetime cost of buying an electric machine will be cheaper
(01:27):
than the.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Fossil fuel machine.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
And then when you're ready, throwing some solur on the
roof and a battery in the garage it only helps
with those savings.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So are we close to some kind of tipping point
in which this EV solar setup moves away from being
you know, the rich person moral signaling signaling choice market
and becomes a mainstream decision, a money decision.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I took David Seymour for a joy ride and one
of the fastest evs in New Zealand a couple of
months back, and his line in this whole process, he
was giggling like a schoolboy driving up the remarkable ski
road in this electric vehicle, and the line that I
just love that he put out was is it's not
woke if it works. And there's just so many demonstrations
(02:12):
now around New Zealand of people pretty much eliminating their
energy bills or coming very close to eliminating their energy
bills by doing so. The issue is probably at the
moment that you know, there is still an upfront capital
cost which means only certain households and families can access
this technology. And so one of the big things we're
all about is trying to find new exciting ways of
allowing more entry for more New Zealanders, whether that's through
(02:34):
finance like the what the National Party just announced their
home Energy fund, right through to things like plug and solar,
which obviously has a much lower price point than a
professional installation on your rooth.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
What's it there with line fees and you know, pumping
excess eleuctricy back into the grid? Is that a realistic
thing in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It is a realistic thing in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
And that's another thing that's actually just been announced very
recently is making sure that the big energy players pay
fairly for the energy that is being pumped by customers
back into the grid. You might have seen that announcement
only a couple of months ago. Gone to the days
where you know energy providers will only pay you eight
cents of killer what hour when they're charging you forty
per cent of killer what out and take it from
(03:14):
the grid. That is going to start getting a lot
better now, which is which is pretty exciting, but line's
fees are still an issue. We've got to figure out
the future energy system of New Zealand and how that
is to be priced appropriately. We want people to stay
on the grid. The cheapest energy you're ever going to
get is energy from your own rooftop. The second cheapest
energy you're ever going to get it should be energy
(03:34):
from your neighbor's rooftop. So we want people to stay
connected to the grid, and we certainly don't want to
drive them off by skyrocketing it for structure costs.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
That's for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Is anywhere in New Zealand that doesn't have enough sun
year around to run solar.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
This is the thing right land of the long White Cloud.
For a long time, I think we've tricked ourselves into
thinking it's not sunny, even though we have one of
the largest melanoma rates in the world and we're incredibly
good at farming, which kind of goes against that. And
I think when you see the efficiency of the gains now,
I mean, we do not have as great a solar
yield as Australia, but we have very, very decent solar yield.
(04:10):
And to put it in perspective, if you finance solar
on your rooftop at you know, five point five percent
on the standard mortgage rate, you're probably generating electricity at
like eleven cents of killer what hour. You're probably buying
it from the grid at forty cents a killer what hour.
The Australians might you know, be able to do that
at six or seven cents of killer what hour. The
narrative doesn't really change. This is still the cheapest energy
(04:31):
by a country mile.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
And what's the deal with balcony solar? So people can
run it in townhouses and apartments? Why can't we get
that here?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Mike, Well, that's the super exciting thing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You know.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Part of going for a joy ride with David Seymour
was to get him to think about unlocking a whole
bunch of this new technology for New Zealander's He's now
got the goal of making solar installations or New Zealand
the most efficient place in the world to instill solar.
That's a really good initiative because it's going to help
all New Zealands get into this stuff, and one of
(05:02):
those key things is plug and solar For those that
don't know what that is. You should be able to
go down to Bunning soon, buy a solar panel and
plug it into your normal wall socket with you within
your home and immediately start generating energy to save on
your power bills.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And we think it could save seven.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
To fourteen percent for most households in New Zealand, which
is not insignificant with the price of power bills where
they're at.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
And so this note that's just you just go down
and you buy it and you plug it in and
you don't have to have a conversation with anyone else.
That's just your decision.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Correct. Currently illegal in New Zealand.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think we've got, you know, cross party support for
approving it, and so really my goal is to hopefully
get this approved before the election. If not, then obviously
after the election will get the job done and more
and more New Zealanders will have access to this technology
and be able to save money.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, So is that a big part of it, Mike.
You know, we've heard from people with they had issues
with Heritage House and regulations and consent is just about
councils and government getting out of the way.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Yeah, essentially, right, Like the way that I like to
say it is, we want to get the government off
everyone's roofs. We want them to be able to do
this stuff really, you know, really easily. We've been fighting
really hard for announcements that have come through around for
farmers in particular, who had all sorts of issues with
the resource can consent that varied wildly from council to council.
We've got things out of the line like no consents
(06:18):
on pre consented buildings, you know, no tax for households
on exporting powerbacks to the grid. We are changing this
energy system really really quickly now. And what I think
everyone is starting to realize is just it doesn't really
matter what you think about things like climate. Everybody wins
in the scenario. It drops emissions, it drops that, it
fixes our current account, it saves people money. What's not
(06:41):
to like about this new tech?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Really?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And finally, how far away is corrugated solar for heritage times?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Do you know what?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I actually couldn't tell you tell you that, but hopefully
not too long. I might actually look into that because
if that's something that we need to get over the line.
Have you got a herotach home yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Ah, I've got a mountain in Bungalow, but I've got
enough backyard roofage to consider so solo out the back,
but you know, some people out the front, yep your
camouflage solar solar if it's that much of a problem.
One thing is I just don't see solar as being
as ugly as obviously some of these heritage decisions. I
think it is.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
But I think solar is really much in vogue, whereas
a few years ago it wasn't right. And I think
more and more New Zealanders is just realizing how much
of a slam dunk it is. It's like having your
own private oil well and refinery on your rooftop, especially
if you're whacking it into your new electric use or
your electric vehicle or whatever it might be. And I
think that's just enough to get people over the line.
I'll have a look at that heritage stuff and get
(07:37):
back to you on that front, because in all honesty,
you know, we've got to get everyone across the line,
and that includes people like Ryan Bridge and Mike Hosking
who I've been egging on for a long time to
put solo on the roofs.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So we'll see where we get to. Eh.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, if you crack the corrugated iron panels, just give
us a buzz back. Matt Heath will be a silent partner.
That sounds like a good business, fellas, and.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Also we'll do I also like the idea of drill
baby drill on my roof as well. See if there's
any oil up there.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
It's a far better way to go, isn't it guaranteed results?
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Unlike drilling for oil, that's for sure. It seems to be.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Mike, great to catch up. Thank you very much for
giving us your time.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Oh, no worries, thanks for having me on. We'll talk
to That is.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Mike Casey, CEO of Rewiring Altos.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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