Well if it wants to fix the inflation issue. Isn’t this the entire point of high interest rates. Slow down speculation. Push risky investments out of housing. Actually bring down the cost of housing.
Obviously banks getting rich on our misery is a side affects. Maybe tax them on that glut and reinvest it in things to help average kiwis.
My plan would be.
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Solar for all houses and Nationalize the energy sector. Make it non profit and charge the least amount of money to keep the system running. Incentives for adding solar to all properties and create a solar industry in NZ.
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Pump money into making food affordable and cheaper. Make food cheaper not more expensive. Maybe try to increase competition and cut out profit gouging on folks.
Government run farms and roll out community gardens and the like.
Cut glut of politicians and use experts who actually know what they are talking about. Remove housing speculation.
More trains and better transit links. No more return to offices. Hire the best people for the job regardless of location.
Hell yeah, sign me up.
Woa, watch out there buddy! That’s starting to sound suspiciously like socialism!
Or just using the technological advancements to make life better for everyone. Not just a select few
Putting solar on houses isn’t worthwhile unless you’re typically at home during the day, because the buyback rate is so low. A much better idea is installing it on businesses, that actually use power during the day.
Modern solar arrays commonly have battery packs so you can use the power when you need it.
But I do like the idea of installing solar on businesses. To be fair, it is a thing, it is happening. But uptake is a lot lower than you might expect. Especially for things like office buildings where the owner is not being charged for power, and the occupiers paying for power aren’t the owners.
If we are looking at this from a national power supply point of view, there’s likely a middle ground where you can pay people near the current spot price for power, but you’re gonna have to increase daily charges for maintaining the lines as currently this is subsidized through charging more for usage (I guess the idea is higher users should pay more for line maintenance, which I can understand as well).
France passed a law last year that all carparks that hold more than 60 cars must have solar installed overhead and I’m so hoping that happens here. Parking out of the sun all day would be brilliant, since we seem to love big sprawling ground floor carparks.
Change is happening, just not fast enough for NZ to catch on.
That’s cool! I feel like in NZ we are more likely to use incentives rather than just making a law that people have to do the things we want them to.
Yeah definitely. I used to live in the middle of Takapuna, and I counted maybe one office building with Solar Panels on their roof :(
I’ve seen this argument a lot, and the problem is it always assumes we don’t change anything else. Here are some ideas that would make this much more of a non-issue:
- Crown corp power “Kiwi Power” could buy back at full price.
- Night-store heating that charges during the day then releases over night when the temperature drops.
- Hot water heats during the day instead of at night.
- Battery storage for all, or community-sized storage for local redistribution.
- If large-scale storage is done, power price could vary depending on the amount of power supplied during the day that went into storage. With our current smart meters this would be trivial.
So you see with a bit of thought and creativity these problems can be alleviated. Unfortunately, it seems a large proportion of New Zealanders are allergic to change, so this is unlikely to happen.
None of that sounds in any way cost effective, especially the battery storage. Not when we’ve already built so much hydro that we can use to fill in the gaps.
My point is that people tend to dismiss mass solar based on perceived problems without realizing there are solutions to them.
Some of my ideas are costly, sure, but others aren’t. Why is charging a slow release heater and heating your hot water during the day not cost effective? It is cost neutral, but utilizes solar. Why is a crown corp offering full price buy-back not cost effective? There is no reason for the lower buy-back rates, other than to ensure profit for the power companies. If the company was not profit driven, they could offer full buy back rates. How do I know this? Because it used to be that way, but the buy back reduced as solar uptake increased.
Stop dismissing progress because it might require a small amount of problem solving. Otherwise, we will need improve our country.
The point I’m making isn’t that these problems can’t be solved, it’s that there are far better options than going all in on solar. Your heater idea, for example, could be done. But why, when a modern heat pump gives you close to five times as much energy out as you put in? It would overall use far more energy, and would use it at a time when solar is at it’s least effective.
Not only would you be using this energy at a different time to when it was generated, but you would also be using it in a different place. The far north of the country would be generating it, and the deep south would be using it.
It’s important to have some solar, especially on buildings that are running HVAC, because peak production coincides with peak demand, but running the whole country on it doesn’t add up.
Oh I totally agree solar is only a part of the solution, not the magic bullet. Absolutely agree. I was really just trying to point out why the usual refrain of “it’s not perfect so there’s no point doing it” and “but what about this problem, let’s not even bother” is tiresome.
I get that but doesn’t mean you can’t use the power during the day. It’s not as effective but yes every roof should have solar. We honestly shouldn’t need any other power source. Have geo and hydro should mean power is just cost maintenance. No cold or gas should be required.
Probably need to look into storage more than anything. Think business that can claim back plenty in tax expenses get enough help. This is for those struggling to hear their homes. This is for those going hungry because of predatory practices.
This is for those struggling to hear their homes.
Yes, because as we know, solar is at it’s most effective in the dead of winter.
Better than nothing. Obviously with more capacity and storage you’d accumulate over summer. Release in winter. But if course you knew that. If you have a better idea. I’m sure we’d all benefit from it
Or, you could use renewables that produce power when it’s dark, cold, windy, and raining.
Solar has it’s uses, but you need a balance of energy sources, coupled with the huge amount of stored energy we have in our hydro dams.
We have that. Plenty hydro and we have some geothermal. Plus add in wind and bio. But solar can fulfill all needs. Don’t actually need anymore. If most houses businesses and anywhere with roof space. We’d have more than we need.
Then it’s storage and grid upgrades. Pumped storage would be a good bet.
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I agree with the author that banks should lower their margins.
The more they do the easier it will be to hike the OCR again. 😄
