Energy Hardship Expert Panel Report
The Energy Hardship Expert Panel (EHEP) submitted their final report, ‘Te Kore, Te po, Te Ao Marama Energy Hardship: The challenges and the way forward’, to the Energy Minister back in July. Perhaps the ‘machine of Government’ cranked too slowly to allow us all the opportunity to see this report ahead of the election? Whatever […]
The Burden Shouldn’t Fall on those Carrying the Most Weight Already
Th heading is used in this article written by Ketan Joshi about the need to be careful with how we transition quickly away from a high carbon way of living. The basic argument is that causing further large and unnecessary environmental or social harm to build large scale renewable generation/storage will slow the transition down […]
Why Warmer Kiwi Homes is So Important
There are two driving forces for Community Energy Network (CEN). We need to eliminate energy hardship. And we need to support our communities to become as resilient as possible to the changing climate, while lowering their carbon emissions. To achieve both outcomes, we need to provide initiatives that involve and engage the public, providing opportunities […]
Why An Energy Evolution Is Needed
Our Energy sector needs to step up and make changes that allows for a more inclusive and community focused approach
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!
Why is collecting data important to growing healthy community energy sectors through ownership of renewable generation assets
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 […]
Our Response to Covid-19
Community Energy Network (CEN) supports the Government in its tough new policies and a large financial support package released in the wake of COVID-19. We applaud the people-first approach while recognising that we will all need to be open to change and lean into innovative approaches to provide solutions for our communities in the coming […]
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 […]
Redefining how we measure energy hardship
This ‘10% threshold’ discussion below has been written by Ian McChesney. Ian is deeply experienced in the community energy sector, having co-founded CEN member CEA in 1994. He was CEA’s representative on the forerunner to CEN (EECN – Energy Efficiency Community Network) and has recently worked with CEN on their response to the Healthy Homes […]
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 […]