Four years ago I was learning about the challenges of renewable energy with an engineer from Otago Polytechnic.
He explained that the biggest challenge about shifting to renewables was storage. We can create it, but we have struggled to save it for later easily.
This is all purporting to change with the release of a new household battery solution from billionaire Elon Musk. This can hold 10 kilowatt hours at a cost of $US3,500.
Now this is hugely significant when looking at the bigger scale of electricity storage. Not only has Musk designed this solution to work for a house - which is expected to result in climbing demand for household solar solutions - but he also has one for grids.
A commentator from Forbes explains that this price drop will make storage economically viable at a utility-level and could even spell the end of nuclear power developments.
Down here in New Zealand, we are already around 75 per cent renewable, so with the price all that much more affordable, why wouldn't we take the opportunity to get to 100 per cent?
In 2013, the energy we generated was 53 per cent hydroelectricity, 19 per cent natural gas, 14 per cent geothermal, 5 per cent coal and 5 per cent wind.
Yesterday Solid Energy announced yet another restructuring - this time over the Stockton coal mine. Over 400 workers have been made redundant by Solid Energy in the last five years and the announcement may see the mothballing of one of our biggest coalmines.
Does this signal the beginning of the end of fossil fuels in New Zealand?
With payback times on solar arrays plummeting, schemes hitting the market with no payments up front and significant investments towards a renewable future happening in wind power (for example with Meridian's new Mill Creek installation - expected to be one of the most productive in the world) - It is not a huge stretch of the imagination to think that the 5 per cent of our electricity generated by coal could disappear soon.
I think that New Zealand has a unique opportunity to lead the way in this space and get to the 100 per cent renewables mark. It would enable electric cars (which would reduce the health problems caused by air pollution), reduce the risk of tragedies like the Pike River disaster and undoubtedly boost our tourism economy, particular with high-end, well-educated who would treat our home well.
What else could we do to get the balance up to 100 per cent and what do you think might happen if we could achieve it?
