Solar to play big role in New Zealand’s electricity future

Small-scale renewables could play a big part in New Zealand’s electricity future, says Brendan Winitana, Chair of the Sustainable Electricity Association of New Zealand.

“Our industry is vibrant and forecasting revenue growth of more than 170% in the next five years. We are building capability, launching an accreditation program and an NZQA qualification later this year ahead of an expected surge in employee numbers,” he said.

With the price of solar power technology falling more than 50% in the past 12 months, home-generated power is now a viable option and can be justified purely on a price basis, says Winitana. The number of domestic grid connected installations has doubled in the last year and accounts for 90% of all installations. And the fact that the technology can work on cloudy days means that electricity is being generated, for use or for sale, even when the sun isn’t shining.

The future of electricity generation, globally, is moving from a large-scale centralised model to one that is complemented by small distributed generation, says Winitana.

“We expect the same trend in New Zealand. Support from local or central government could accelerate sustainable self-generated electricity installations and possibly delay expensive investment in building new centralised generation capacity.

“New Zealand is blessed with lots of sunshine hours, wind and water. Support, such as mandated payment terms for excess generation, instead of voluntary, built-in funding processes linked to rates payments and fee-free consenting processes, would make it much easier for ordinary kiwis to make the most of these resources to generate electricity - at home.”

Sixty per cent of industry revenue is earned domestically and is forecast to rise to 72% in five years. Solar photovoltaic (PV), otherwise known as solar panels, dominate domestic and export sales, with small amounts of wind and small-scale hydro generation.

“The domestic market has the greatest potential,” says Winitana, “but there is also good opportunity over the long term in markets such as the Pacific Islands, which have a heavy reliance on diesel generators, and Australia, which relies largely on coal-fired electricity.

“The opportunity, with sustainable clean-tech electricity generation, and in particular solar generation, is global. New Zealand, with a strong research, development and commercialisation of solar-based technologies, is at the forefront. The fact that there is more private research being conducted here than public shows the technology’s commercial potential.”