New Zealand has more sunshine than Germany.
But only 1 in 35 homes here has rooftop solar.
Australia? 1 in 3.

Why? I tried to find out - despite some strange secrecy

www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/588445/government-kicked-the-tyres-on-solar-subsidies-but-went-with-minor-tweaks-instead

March 02, 2026 - 19:05 UTC

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Thank goodness that you're doing the mahi

Ka pai
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🌞🔌
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One of the very best things I ever did was invest in a good sized solar array before I retired. It has saved me a huge amount of money over the years they've been operating. Vital if one is on a pension or low income, especially.

Subsidies need to be made available for low income households.
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Totally agree. We've had our solar and battery here for almost 2 years. In the first year alone our total energy costs, including charging our EV, was $952.00.
Our aircon was on for that entire time too.
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Support this mahi!
We absolutely need to bring in rules like all new builds need to have a solar.
And a programme to help existing homes into solar.
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A major motivator left out of this story is that govt benefits from higher power prices,recieving higher dividends when powercos profits go up.

Its a form of indirect taxation,so the incentive is not there to promote
solar.
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yeah I feel like every story on energy needs a pointer to a bunch of “read this first” pieces on like, the market, climate, energy generally etc
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Perhaps the higher uptake of solar in Germany is in part due the Russian supplied LNG/natural gas being expensive, subject to political wrangling - threats to cut off supply by Putin and other authoritarian leaders - and also prone to sabotage and war damage due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine
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Same as it will be here with the ill thought out LNG option the NAF coalition prefers to - seemingly only to support their fossil fuel friends (donors) 🤔. There are MUCH better options they ignore and for what? We will become more vulnerable rather than more independent.
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Once again National talking the talk re climate change, but then doing nothing at best or actively sabotage climate-friendly policies at worst.
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"The research shows it's actually cheaper to make your own power via rooftop solar than it is to buy electricity from the grid," Fuge.
Thank you Kirsty for another great article
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Any chance @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social an OIA or a few could be done regarding the LNG decision makers and the timeline given the war now started.
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Indeed! How’s that LNG proposal looking now 😳.
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Good to hear you on Morning Report.

Always confused by Corin's argument that in a dry year you might need more than solar and wind.

What is the weather type that gives no sun, rain or wind? A month of fog seems unlikely.
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It also misses the point that solar means more water is kept in the hydro dams as a reserve for when it’s needed.
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I always want to ask Chris Bishop the date of the day when this country had no rain, no wind and no sun. Anywhere.
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Indeed.

The most efficient battery is a full hydro lake. The less we use the hydro lakes the better they are as a backup.

It's also of course our decades ago switch to a 24/7 work week that drives the who game.
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Yeah I tried and badly failed to paraphrase @christinahood.bsky.social on that - portfolio option, lack of modelling etc but was going off script!
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A dry year with a reeeeeaaallly long solar eclipse
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The point they're missing is that the additional solar and wind would leave the lake levels higher so that covers the 'dry year' argument. Add some grid scale battery storage and you're absolutely covered
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Great mahi! Another example of how being poor is punished
Own your own house and can get a loan from the bank? Cool, you can get solar and a cheaper power bill

Renting? Bad credit? Sorry dude, you have to keep paying the always increasing power bill
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Excellent article - thank you!
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Thanks for this.
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Great writing!!

I think its worth credit most, if not all, NZ banks for offering green loans at 0-1% to assist solar, insulation, EV purchase and installation.

That got us in the game last year.

Summer power bills are single figures, winter bills, just the lines fees...
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Cold as on the Volcanic Plateau today but sunny as, have the heat pump on, dishwasher running and car charging and still putting 2kwh back into the grid...

We need a govt that can not cannot...
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Perhaps the dividends the government gets from the Gentailers might explain their desire to keep electricity prices high and suppress solar uptake

Perverse incentives
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You say that like corruption is not this government's MO.
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Docs reveal Cabinet poised to commit $4bn to a RoNS that'll cost $22bn to complete funded via PPPs & raising petrol taxes for sev yrs.
As well, the gvt's letting gentailers cont making huge profits which r passed on to shareholders instead of funding solar. The Gvt's laser focused on donors not COL.
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