People Power – Kiwi Style?

How can we leverage community energy to provide a fair transition to a low carbon world. Plenty of lessons from overseas!

Otaki Solar Farm, a renewable energy project by Energise.

Energise Otaki Solar Farm

Energise Otaki Solar Farm is a renewable energy project by Energise Otaki, a charity developing and implementing energy awareness, efficiency, and microgeneration projects since 2011. It embarked on the Otaki solar farm proposal in 2015, working with experienced industry specialists who volunteered their time for feasibility modeling and technical design. In July 2019, it received […]

Why is collecting data important to growing healthy community energy sectors through ownership of renewable generation assets

Community Energy

A healthy, growing community energy sector supports communities to take ownership of assets that provide renewable generation, operation, and demand management services. This allows each community to: Eliminate energy hardship by providing high engagement in energy generation and use. This engagement provides opportunities to develop retrofit projects that are focussed on making homes efficient and […]

New Zealand Aotearoa Community Energy Dataset

What is the New Zealand Aotearoa Community Energy Dataset (NZACED) This is a dataset of local or community owned renewable energy initiatives in New Zealand. It ranges from consumer trust owned networks, to community and Iwi owned renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and municipal projects. To provide some context for the current state of […]

A Fresh Energy Hardship Framework

CEN Introduction What do we need to do to eliminate energy hardship in Aotearoa/New Zealand? The framework discussion below is the second blog of two written by Ian McChesney. It neatly highlights the key areas for discussion and emphasises the need to improve the way we develop consensus on complex issues that deeply impact the […]

Energy Democracy

Energy democracy is the idea that New Zealand can shift from a centralised, top-down provision of energy to one that prioritises deep engagement and local decision-making for communities to literally “own” their energy network. The reason this is so important is not only because it helps to give a resilient supply of electricity, but it […]

Energy Hardship

People living in energy hardship live in homes that perform so poorly that the cost of keeping the home warm and dry (and have hot water when they need it) is too high. Lining up with the dynamics of economic poverty, energy hardship comes from having a home that is hard to heat and keep […]