New houses to trial solar power

Lines company Unison is trialing home solar electricity generation.

A trial on the potential effects of home electricity generation has started in Hastings.

Sixteen solar panels have been placed on the roofs of 12 houses in a Hastings District Council housing development.

"We can now start to gather data which will provide Unison with first-hand experience of the operation, performance and potential impact these technologies may have on the electricity distribution network," Unison chief executive Ken Sutherland said.

A typical New Zealand home consumed about 20 kWh of electricity a day.

"On average, these systems should generate around 14.2kWh per day, with the highest generation in summer months."

Some houses have been fitted with battery storage systems, with the eventual house owner given the option to buy.

"Some generation will be consumed directly by the householder, a portion will charge the battery storage and any excess generation will be exported to the grid, at a buy-back price determined by individual retailers."

Extensive home generation would revolutionise the electricity distribution model, especially with Hawke's Bay's high number of sunshine hours.

"As more of the homes are completed, we will start to see the effects from multiple solar and energy storage systems in a compact area on the network.

"There are a lot of different scenarios we want to test so we anticipate up to three years of data collection once the 12 homes are occupied."

Unison customer relations manager Danny Gough said the energy component of a typical household electricity bill was 55 per cent to 60 per cent; the balance being transmission/distribution charges.

"The reality is while you may have solar generation you still incur the fixed part of a bill."

The emerging technology "definitely has a part to play" in the future but the cost of many systems were prohibitive. If systems became cheaper homes could become independent of the national grid.