Solar for Schools

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cshwone

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#3499955 3-Jun-2026 17:45

wellygary:

cshwone:

I can't quite get your logic here - why are the two linked. Commercial solar is just like any other power source feeding the grid be it wind, hydro etc. Why should that impact residential buy back prices while we are still short of generation capability?

Because the way that the national grid operates is that it dispatches the cheapest power first, and when solar is running ( day time) we are not generally short of generation capacity.

If there are large amounts of 10c solar kicking round the grid in the middle of the day, that would tend to drag down the average grid price and thus cap the price would get offered to Home solar (who typically get shafted on buy in anyway)

At 1430 today Solar was 2% of the nations electricity output to the grid

johno1234

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#3499978 3-Jun-2026 20:05

cshwone:

This looks like a really good initiative and will provide good, practical support to schools and communities.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360987247/solar-panels-coming-500-schools-30-million-government-initiative

Schools have big daylight consumption and minimal dark consumption. No brainer?

johno1234

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#3499979 3-Jun-2026 20:11

MikeAqua:

mattwnz:

Potentially. But they also require a reasonable amount of maintenance and inverters have a more limited life than panels and are costly . I mean someone will have to get up on the roof to clean them regularly and as it is a school , they will likely require scaffolding for health and safety and that isn’t cheap. Whereas there appears to be a lot of solar farms planned to be built in rural NZ on farmland. As it is election season it does feel more of an election bribe and to give the impression they are green imo, as they had nearly 3 years to announce such a policy.

Have you ever been responsible for maintaining a boiler? They tend to have a few maintenance requirements as well.

There’s been boiler maintenance fatalities at schools too.

i can’t believe some people are twisting themselves in knots to find fault with this initiative.

tweake

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#3499980 3-Jun-2026 20:15

its certainly a win-win. good for schools, govt budgets and electionaring. only negative is so many things are run down and could do with that money.

gokiwi64

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#3500003 3-Jun-2026 21:10

I work for a University, we were coal fired boilers for heating and hot water , we have been in a de carb program for over 12 months and are totally reliant on the grid , we have had two substantaial power outages recently , no heating and no hot water. Our generators cannot provide enough power and we would need a minimum of 4 hectares of solar to offset the load (this is happening all be it slowly do to local opposition).

On a sort of related point solar is not the answer, not long term - it is a viable jump pack but longer term we need something else - I dont have an answer to what that would look like but we need to be looking at alternatives now given how rapidly our population is expanding.

tweake

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#3500006 3-Jun-2026 21:17

gokiwi64:

we would need a minimum of 4 hectares of solar to offset the load (this is happening all be it slowly do to local opposition).

theres the problem. stuff had an article on this a while back where locals where against a local solar install. just plain old nimby.

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raytaylor

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#3500039 3-Jun-2026 22:22

gokiwi64:

On a sort of related point solar is not the answer, not long term - it is a viable jump pack but longer term we need something else

I still think we need the Lake Onslow project to go ahead. I hate stationary batteries being cycled for no reason because they will eventually fail - even after repacking cells.

But right now, any solar and wind that is installed will offset draw on the lakes, saving water for night time and making it last further into the winter/dry season.

With national grid configuration, i believe that there is a system that dispatches solar and wind first before anything else, and they will get paid at least the rate at which the other generators had bid if it was higher. Some details i am skipping over but there are mechanisms to supply from wind and solar first before others.

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Handle9

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#3500041 3-Jun-2026 22:27

The reality is there is no "the answer." An effective energy strategy is always going to be a mixture of rewable generation, energy storage, fossil fuels and energy efficiency measures.

Solar is a part of an energy strategy, it isn't and shouldn't be "the answer" just as a mega LNG terminal isn't "the answer."

gzt

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#3500060 3-Jun-2026 23:29

One of the many things with rising demand in NZ is air conditioning. A huge chunk of that is bad building design or at least non-optimum building design. Ignoring the many causes, solar is almost the perfect partner for that demand curve.

k1w1k1d

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#3500103 4-Jun-2026 08:44

gokiwi64

"Our generators cannot provide enough power."

Was adding extra generators looked at when shifting away from coal?

Kickinbac

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#3500170 4-Jun-2026 11:08

I think this is a great example and should be applauded. I'm very surprised its coming from a centre/right government! Particularly when they are proposing the astounding mistake of the LNG import facility!

Schools have lots of roof area, usually unshaded and good orientations and their energy use is mainly during the day. They are in the centre of every community. The school pays the power so the money that is saved can be put straight back into the school.

This creates jobs for electricians/installers which is very much needed at the moment. The scale of it means that these systems can be done at good prices.

Most schools now have heat pumps in classrooms, so solar will directly offset the energy use. The only time it won't is first thing in the morning when heating is needed to warm up classrooms.

The government can also negotiate good power deals with the retailers. So in the holidays when the school is empty, its making money.

If they add batteries to these systems, distributed batteries add capacity to the grid during tight conditions, like extreme weather or high energy demand.

I can't see any downside.

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MikeAqua

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#3500206 4-Jun-2026 12:51

mattwnz:

Sure but with electricity they are going to have to purchase other new forms of heating in addition to solar generation . Heat pump installation, maintenance and will be costly and they don’t generally last as long either as old radiators. Always pros and cons imo.

Heat pump purchase and maintenance is much cheaper than boilers. Heat pumps are reliable and low maintenance.

Boilers are critical-risk plant. The risk is of the tic-tic-boom variety.

Radiators last until they don't or the pipes fail. It's a massive task to replace them. Heat pumps are much simpler. Unless you're using heat pumps to run radiators in which case ... at least you don't have a boiler.

Lots of people can install, and service heat pumps. There' probably half a dozen companies in Blenheim. Boilers ... when I worked with a couple, to get a registered certifier to Marlborough for an annual inspection, we had to book months in advance. IIRC there were two options in the South Island, and they charged accordingly.

I've run a business-unit with a couple of dozen heat pumps. Combination of air-to-air and air-to-water. They simply got serviced once a year by the supplier. It took them a day, if nothing needed repairing.

Mike

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