Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to wean New Zealand off coal

Advocates for renewable energy say a new coal deal may be necessary but should be the last of its kind.  

The big four power companies are investing in a strategic energy reserve which will add 600-thousand tonnes of coal to current stocks.  

Rewiring Aotearoa Chief Executive Mike Casey says this will be needed because we haven't reduced our reliance on fossil fuels.  

He told Ryan Bridge we need to accelerate the move towards sources like solar and geothermal.  

Casey says all renewable options should be on the table and there should be a focus on keeping power bills low.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
News out of the Big four Gen Taylor's yesterday. They're
importing six hundred thousand tons of coal and storing it
at Huntley. This is to protect us from energy security
problems like the ones we had last year. It should
keep the plant running for another ten years. Mike Cases
with the rewiring altat Oh, he's the CEO.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mike, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan, how are you, my friend?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Very well? Thank you. Good to have you back on
the show. Now, you're a practical guy, so I know
that you will understand why we need to do this.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh, one hundred percent, and hopefully we can get to
the no nonsense, no spin answers on this. But yes,
unfortunately we're in a situation that we need a giant
pile of coal at Huntley to keep our energy system running,
and we need to avoid it all costs rolling blackouts,
which well, you know, we may have come close to
in twenty twenty four with how high the price we
went because.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
We thought we had lots of gas and turns out
we had less than we thought we did, and then
you end up with a crunch.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's one hundred percent right. And the other big problem
that we've seen is twenty fifteen, the Activity Commission talked
about how we needed to wean ourselves off get off coal.
Nothing happened. Is now twenty twenty five, and I think
we sort of need to commit as a country maybe
to this being the last major coal oil order that
we ever make.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, do you think it will be?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I hope so. Put simply that we just need to
think about better ways of managing our large battery that
we have, which is our hydro lakes. And one of
the most exciting things is that, you know, the rollout
of you know what, I'm an advocate for the rollout
of solar across New Zealand. Rolling out solar across New
Zealand will ultimately allow us to hold on to our
water for longer and burn less coal.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
What about geo thermal I was talking to Shane Jones
about this now there. It's hugely expensive to drill for
and need to do lots of holes apparently, but once
you get it, it's year round.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm a massive fan of geo thermal and all other
forms of renewables. The simple answer is, the more energy
that we can generate in the middle of winter, the
longer we can hold onto that water for and the
less coal that we need to be. So I think
all options should be on the table, and it really
comes down to a cost benefit analysis to working out
how we keep power bills low or the lowest possible

(02:08):
for NEWSIC wonders.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Appreciate your time, Mike, Mike Casey, rewiring olts O CEO
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