The Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand urges Kiwis to take up solar and batteries as a path to energy independence and reducing carbon emissions

With thousands of households across New Zealand experiencing distressing power cuts the Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand (SEANZ) urges more Kiwis to consider solar power and battery storage as a path to providing greater energy independence and supporting the grid Even during winter months solar users can generate and store their own electricity, meaning they’re less dependent on the national grid and have some protection against their supply being turned off due to spikes in national demand.

Brendan Winitana, SEANZ Chair says, “Yesterday’s Grid Emergency Notice and resulting mass power outages provides a clear indication that the current energy market is facing serious issues. It’s likely the enforced outage imposed on thousands of people won’t be a one-off occurrence, and as a country, we need to look at alternative solutions to generate power and meet our increasing energy demands.”

He adds, “Solar power combined with battery storage is now a norm in New Zealand, powering tens of thousands of homes around the country around the year. Solar has empowered these customers to take energy generation and storage into their own hands and helps safeguard them against power companies turning off the switch on their supply as well as doing their bit to reinforce the national grid.”

One solar customer, Gavin Hoare, is relieved he decided to install a solar system on his house two years ago. He is seeing significant savings and is less dependent on the grid during winter. Mr Hoare says, “I’m less prone to increased energy costs in winter and as power outages are now a serious concern for me, I’m investigating adding batteries to my system.”

The recent power outages took place as the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report issued a stark warning that human-driven climate change is now influencing weather and climate extremes across the globe.

The report outlines the reality of extreme weather conditions with more intense rainfall and flooding, along with more droughts in many regions. Earlier this year New Zealand saw prolonged dry spells which resulted in low hydro-dam lake levels. Consumers paid the price for this with increased energy costs.

Brendan Winitana explains that if New Zealand embraces solar we have the chance to not only reduce our carbon-emissions, critical to reversing rising global temperatures, but we can build resilience in the system by reducing load from the grid and level off the impact of supply issues and increased demand.

“The writing is on the wall, the impact of human-driven climate change is clear. We need to act fast to address this on a global and local level,” says Winitana.

“The traditional energy market alone cannot meet the needs of our current situation. We must look to solutions like solar to provide zero-carbon energy generation that can help us manage the energy production challenges we face now and in the future.”

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