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It’s a bit depressing. Seeing how Germany and Austria cram solar panels into little patches of land all over the place is in stark contrast to New Zealand wher

It’s a bit depressing. Seeing how Germany and Austria cram solar panels into little patches of land all over the place is in stark contrast to New Zealand where I live. If they can make it work, surely we can? We are better placed for sun and the wind blows. We are mostly hydro already, I suppose that’s a plus.

standeven 3y ago
Maybe it's similar to BC, Canada. They're mostly hydro powered, so they already have clean energy that's fairly cheap. As a result, the economics for solar never made much sense. However, with crazy-cheap panels and low hydro reservoirs due to climate change, solar now makes sense and it's appearing on more and more roof tops.
- dukeyukey 3y ago
  BC being extremely mountainous and relatively cloudy can't help either.
  - standeven 3y ago
    Yes, the valleys and rain don’t help either. The interior gets a lot of sun though, especially the Okanagan.
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  Rooftop is not very cost effective. It works for individuals because of awkward rules about what they owe for society maintaining their access to the larger grid. It’s much more expensive than a dedicated utility scale solar plant overall
zizee 3y ago
That's a pretty negative perspective. 87% of electricity in NZ is from renewable sources. NZ is a world leader, and should be lauded. What is the basis for your perspective that NZ is failing to "make it work"? NZ is so far ahead of Germany it's not funny (Austria is similar to NZ with 87%). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_New_Zealand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_New_Zeal... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany
- lostlogin 3y ago
  > What is the basis for your perspective that NZ is failing to "make it work"? Regarding solar! Not about renewables as a whole. Any perception that NZ is green is primarily due to other factors than environmental concern. Hydro was a good choice and it’s green, not because of it being green. We burn coal to make milk powder and trash our rivers to fuel the dairy industry. Recycling efforts are abysmal and there is a regressive attitude to greening transport. The high level of green energy is great, I just grow frustrated at the lack of progress.
  - ta1243 3y ago
    How would solar help with "milk powder"? Or recycling? Or transport?
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      > How would solar help with "milk powder"? Or recycling? Or transport? Sorry, I might be missing your point here as you already know my answer - solar power is an energy source. Dehydrating milk by burning coal is a dirty option. Fonterra burns a lot. They don’t say how much but numbers up to 700k tons are claimed [1]. I’d love a better source, as real usage is likely lower. However they do use more than a decent sized power plant. An electrified rail network is basic infrastructure. We send everything by truck. It destroys the roads and the bridges. It clogs the cities as the ports are located poorly for road access (Auckland and Tauranga). We depend on a few ships to connect the North and South Island. Electric ships have been considered but we have made zero actual progress replacing our aging and decaying ships. Encouraging the use of electric transport seems an obvious thing when we are a heavily hydro country. We may be losing Rio Tinto, who use a huge percentage of our power. We could use this energy for transport. Instead we are upping taxes on electric cars and dropping taxes on large, fuel inefficient utes/suv/trucks (not sure what everyone calls them). We could do a lot better with what we have. [1] https://coal.org.nz/economy-coal/ https://coal.org.nz/economy-coal/

standeven 3y ago

Maybe it's similar to BC, Canada. They're mostly hydro powered, so they already have clean energy that's fairly cheap. As a result, the economics for solar never made much sense. However, with crazy-cheap panels and low hydro reservoirs due to climate change, solar now makes sense and it's appearing on more and more roof tops.

dukeyukey 3y ago
BC being extremely mountainous and relatively cloudy can't help either.
- standeven 3y ago
  Yes, the valleys and rain don’t help either. The interior gets a lot of sun though, especially the Okanagan.
jncfhnb 3y ago
Rooftop is not very cost effective. It works for individuals because of awkward rules about what they owe for society maintaining their access to the larger grid. It’s much more expensive than a dedicated utility scale solar plant overall

zizee 3y ago

That's a pretty negative perspective. 87% of electricity in NZ is from renewable sources. NZ is a world leader, and should be lauded. What is the basis for your perspective that NZ is failing to "make it work"? NZ is so far ahead of Germany it's not funny (Austria is similar to NZ with 87%). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_New_Zealand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_New_Zeal... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

lostlogin 3y ago
> What is the basis for your perspective that NZ is failing to "make it work"? Regarding solar! Not about renewables as a whole. Any perception that NZ is green is primarily due to other factors than environmental concern. Hydro was a good choice and it’s green, not because of it being green. We burn coal to make milk powder and trash our rivers to fuel the dairy industry. Recycling efforts are abysmal and there is a regressive attitude to greening transport. The high level of green energy is great, I just grow frustrated at the lack of progress.
- ta1243 3y ago
  How would solar help with "milk powder"? Or recycling? Or transport?
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    > How would solar help with "milk powder"? Or recycling? Or transport? Sorry, I might be missing your point here as you already know my answer - solar power is an energy source. Dehydrating milk by burning coal is a dirty option. Fonterra burns a lot. They don’t say how much but numbers up to 700k tons are claimed [1]. I’d love a better source, as real usage is likely lower. However they do use more than a decent sized power plant. An electrified rail network is basic infrastructure. We send everything by truck. It destroys the roads and the bridges. It clogs the cities as the ports are located poorly for road access (Auckland and Tauranga). We depend on a few ships to connect the North and South Island. Electric ships have been considered but we have made zero actual progress replacing our aging and decaying ships. Encouraging the use of electric transport seems an obvious thing when we are a heavily hydro country. We may be losing Rio Tinto, who use a huge percentage of our power. We could use this energy for transport. Instead we are upping taxes on electric cars and dropping taxes on large, fuel inefficient utes/suv/trucks (not sure what everyone calls them). We could do a lot better with what we have. [1] https://coal.org.nz/economy-coal/ https://coal.org.nz/economy-coal/