“High time” for a Solar Revolution – Greenpeace
Reports that up to a third of electricity generated for New Zealand this winter has come from the burning of coal and gas have prompted Greenpeace to call for a Solar revolution.
Extreme weather events mean that New Zealand’s massive hydroelectric resources are less reliable. Utilities have responded by increasing the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas, and at one point in July even diesel generators were fired up to fill the gap in supply.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, Amanda Larsson, says this means our celebrated “clean-grid” is getting dirtier as more polluting fuels are used to power our homes and industry.
“The world urgently needs to cut carbon pollution to avoid climate disasters like floods, droughts, fires and rising seas. But here New Zealand our emissions are still increasing,” she says.
“Climate change means we are going to see more extreme weather, such as low rainfall followed by very high rainfall. That is exactly what we’ve had in the South Island in the last year.
“These low-rainfall periods impact our hydro storage. For us to have resilience, security of supply and much needed clean electricity, we need to start seeing real investment in new, clean generation and an end to coal burning.
“There is a huge opportunity with solar and battery storage for household electricity bills to drop and clean energy supply to increase. From the UK and Germany to states in the US, we are seeing political leadership to reform outdated electricity regulations so they can seize the opportunities provided by these new technologies.
“But here in New Zealand, the big utilities and electricity regulators are stalling. We’re seeing some lines companies – with the support of the Electricity Authority – actively discouraging households from installing solar by slapping unfair solar taxes on their customers. Over 80,000 New Zealanders have signed a petition against this solar tax.
“We have large generators choosing to extend the life of coal burning at Huntly or build new gas plants instead of investing in clean power.
“The solution is waiting in the wings. It’s high-time for New Zealand to join the global Solar revolution.”
Greenpeace is calling on all parties vying for Government to commit to removing the barriers that are currently blocking clean power.
Larsson says New Zealand needs bold policy commitments that seize the opportunities of new technology to help make our electricity cleaner, more affordable and more resilient.
We do need change and that has been known for over 45 years.
Solar generation and wind generation along with the more geographically isolated from user large scale hydro generation, are all deemed the way to go. A massive infrastructure that will need continuous renewal.
Meanwhile in the same breath we plan for greater demand by facilitating greater usage and no serious planning of a future where we use less power, less natural resource and less non-renewables, the ones that any technological change depends on.
Our short sightedness is breathtaking.
No political party is biting the bullet. Our planet is finite but our plans and policies just don’t reflect that reality.
Consumption is business as usual and leading us to a terrible prospect for our children and grandchildren.
The Western world has a chronic problem with virtually no foresight, a myth that prosperity is consuming more and greed is important and must not be moderated.
Yes we do and also we need home water storage systems also from our roof’s as EU has done.