Getting back on this topic. This would be like letting Mobil decide on your car choice and how and when you drive. Not ideal.

sen8or:

 

 

 

I would think that a lot of individuals taking personal responsibility for their efforts to reduce consumption is a lot easier / more realistic than waiting on some politicians to sort things out for us? (and not just those that are in power now, but politicians of any allegiance, Govt's are a massive ship that can't turn on a dime, the population will always be more agile at an individual level).

 

Not sure who is expecting people to change cars. I work for a car retailer and we sell multiple brands of EVs and PHEVs, so I would ofcourse encourage people to come to us and upgrade, but spending thousands on a new EV clearly isn't the right solution for many.

 

 

 

The counter argument is that large orgs (not just government, but also companies) are in a much better position to effect significant change. Like, me not buying Coke makes bugger-all difference to the amount of plastic entering the waste chain. Coke deciding to stop using plastic bottles makes a massive difference overnight.

Me (in a privileged financial position) deciding to get solar helps me but makes bugger-all difference to the amount of electricity that needs to be generated and distributed around the country. Government providing $2.7B to deploy home solar with batteries as far and wide as possible makes a huge difference and also increases resilience in the face of disasters. (I wouldn't put it on the gentailers either, FWIW).

SaltyNZ:

 

HarmLessSolutions:

 

Giving lines co's access to control of home battery storage is not a comfortable strategy for many solar owners so allowing access at the ground floor isn't going to be acceptable for many.

 

 

 

 

And yet we think V2G is going to be the next hot thing...

 

V2G is no more reliant on third part control than any home battery and those seem to have become very popular. V2G/V2H is just the ability to use the battery in your EV to greater advantage.

sen8or:

 

I would think that a lot of individuals taking personal responsibility for their efforts to reduce consumption is a lot easier / more realistic than waiting on some politicians to sort things out for us? (and not just those that are in power now, but politicians of any allegiance, Govt's are a massive ship that can't turn on a dime, the population will always be more agile at an individual level).

 

How many people do you know who will significantly curtail their own usage of their own accord? I don't know a single one. 

As I said earlier in the thread, those who are civic minded enough to curtail discretionary travel to benefit society at large have likely already done so over the past few years in the face of the growing climate crisis. 

cddt:

 

How many people do you know who will significantly curtail their own usage of their own accord? I don't know a single one. 

 

As I said earlier in the thread, those who are civic minded enough to curtail discretionary travel to benefit society at large have likely already done so over the past few years in the face of the growing climate crisis. 

 

Several people at work have changed behaviour just with what its costing now. They won't call it carpooling but they have "got a lift with" someone a few times. Another has brought in their econobox crap car instead of the big ford to save on fuel.

ascroft:

 

 

 

OK - you are part of the present cottage industry….

 

Thats unlikely to lift this to scale so we need a different model to get to say 60% coverage. 

 

There's no evidence that the delivery model is the issue inhibiting roof top solar adoption. It’s a money issue - it needs significant capital and has a fairly slow payback period. 

I think its easier for people to rationalise saving money on fuel (immediate impact on their wallet) vs the long term thinking of the climate crisis, where at an individual level it makes 1/5500000 of 0.17% of Global CO2 emissions difference.... 

On Wednesday mornings my local community group meets at the library.

There is usually a bun-fight for parks.

Not today. 

cddt:

 

How many people do you know who will significantly curtail their own usage of their own accord? I don't know a single one. 

 

I think you will find that price pain is a pretty big incentive to reduce discretionary travel ...  all of the studies on price elasticity have studied small price movements, It will be very informative what a rapid large price shock does...

The PT operators should be able to see the impacts pretty quickly... so lets see how it goes.

freitasm:

 

At some point, something needs to be said about a government that thinks investing in gas is sensible, and that removing EV subsidies and avoiding EV charger investments are good things.

 

Almost like they didn't have a vision for the future.

 

If the subsidies for people buying EVs had stayed in place, they wouldn't have had time to make a material difference to the light vehicle fleet*.  Assume we'd have about three times the number of light EVs we do now. That would be ~270k vehicles which is 6% of the light vehicle fleet.  Trivial.

Further ... most of the light vehicles EVs replace would have used petrol which is largely unimportant for production of and distribution of food. Diesel is by far the majority fuel within NZ for farming, transport and even energy production (boilers, dryers etc).  We could limp along OK without petrol.  Without diesel we are royally screwed. 

Personally, I've recently replaced my daily car-commute with Shank's pony, which burns neither electricity nor petroleum.

(*) Using Norway as an example, I saw stats on LinkedIn yesterday that suggested 3/10 kms driven by cars in Norway are driven by EVs.  That's after decades of highly punitive taxes on ICEVs.   It takes a long time to shift the dial on vehicle use, via new vehicle purchases.  

Gas ... I'm not sure we should invest in gas terminal.  I can see the logic but it's a high risk, band-aid solution.  I can only see one argument in favour which is using gas for additional power generation instead of coal (gas averages about half the GHG emissions of coal)

I'd rather see subsidies for large scale solar/wind, more hydro and more geo (with gas reinjection). The govt recently subsidised a 12MW solar farm near Blenheim, close to an industrial park.  That seems a much better way of doing things than subsidising wealthy people to put a few kW at a time of solar panels on their roofs.  Retail subsidies risk driving prices up (of solar panels, insulation etc).

cddt:

 

How many people do you know who will significantly curtail their own usage of their own accord? I don't know a single one. 

 

My wife in South Auckland has noticed this week it is taking her 25 minutes for her usual morning commute. Last week it was 50 minutes to do the same trip.

Her words are "its like we're back to the school holidays again."

So there is something happening in the masses, as her commute takes her through a bottleneck prior to the Southern Motorway, which usually takes her 10 minutes to get through, this morning she said it was less than 2 minutes.

Handle9:

 

ascroft:

 

 

 

OK - you are part of the present cottage industry….

 

Thats unlikely to lift this to scale so we need a different model to get to say 60% coverage. 

 

 

There's no evidence that the delivery model is the issue inhibiting roof top solar adoption. It’s a money issue - it needs significant capital and has a fairly slow payback period. 

 

Getting panels installed in NZ seem expensive compared to what they pay in the US. I guess more adoption in nz will help bring down prices but guessing that margins at the moment are quite healthy

mattwnz:

 

Getting panels installed in NZ seem expensive compared to what they pay in the US. I guess more adoption in nz will help bring down prices but guessing that margins at the moment are quite healthy

 

Scaffolding is a big one. At least we don't get all the metal conduit and ugly exterior switchgear that they make them install in the US.

mattwnz:

 

Handle9:

 

There's no evidence that the delivery model is the issue inhibiting roof top solar adoption. It’s a money issue - it needs significant capital and has a fairly slow payback period. 

 

 

 

 

Getting panels installed in NZ seem expensive compared to what they pay in the US. I guess more adoption in nz will help bring down prices but guessing that margins at the moment are quite healthy

 

Products in a tiny economy at the arse end of the world are more expensive than in the world’s biggest economy. Man bites dog, more news at 11. 

empacher48:

 

My wife in South Auckland has noticed this week it is taking her 25 minutes for her usual morning commute. Last week it was 50 minutes to do the same trip.

 

Her words are "its like we're back to the school holidays again."

 

So there is something happening in the masses, as her commute takes her through a bottleneck prior to the Southern Motorway, which usually takes her 10 minutes to get through, this morning she said it was less than 2 minutes.

 

I'm glad to hear it! Haven't seen the same myself (also work in South Auckland) but also have been trying to avoid peak traffic all year.