Helping businesses — and households — save money on their bottom lines is a key driver behind tomorrow’s inaugural ‘Electrifying Queenstown’ event.
A collaboration between Destination Queenstown and the Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce, and supported by Aurora Energy, the one-day summit’s being held at Millbrook Resort, near Arrowtown, and will include speakers, a panel discussion and a tradeshow, which
will also include banking reps available to talk about green financing.
DQ boss Mat Woods says the idea for the event was sparked by a paper Rewire Aotearoa published recently about New Zealand becoming one of the first countries in the world to reach the ‘‘tipping point’’.
‘‘It’s now cheaper to electrify your household than it is to use fossil fuels,’’ Wood says.
‘‘If you’re building a new house, or replacing an appliance, it’s now cheaper to electrify than it is to use any other alternative.’’
Rewire’s paper indicates the average Kiwi household could save $4500 per annum if they electrified their home, and if they had to finance it
they’d save $1500 a year.
Woods: ‘‘That’s kind of where this idea [for the summit] came from — if the average household could do that, what could the average business do?
‘‘A lot of people don’t understand what this means and what it means for their business — it’s not about ‘go home tomorrow and go and do it’, but, as you know, things wear out in your business.
‘‘Build that into your procurement plan.’’
Examples Woods cites are fleet cars that wear out, which can be replaced with EVs, or for landscape gardeners, for example, looking at replacing traditional chainsaws and weedeaters with electric versions.
Monday’s line-up includes Cromwell-based cherry farmer Mike Casey – Rewire’s CEO – who has electrified his entire cherry farm and has become ‘‘the face’’ of electrification in NZ, and Climate Action Company founder Finn Ross, of Lake Hāwea Station, while Kinloch Lodge co-owner Toni Glover will join a panel discussion having installed solar panels and batteries to the property, which has the added benefit of building in resilience.
“She’s at the end of a lake, in an area that we know will have an earthquake at some point, so now she’s got her own power generation,” Woods says.
While the morning session’s full to bursting – “we’re beyond delighted at the response to date” – anyone can pop along between 1pm and 3pm to attend the tradeshow, which features 25 exhibitors.
