SolarZero, which provides solar power systems, with no upfront costs but multi-year leases has been put into liquidation. Photo: Supplied
Experts have called for policy change in the wake of the announcement that New Zealand's largest solar power company, SolarZero, would be closing down.
SolarZero, which provides solar power systems, with no upfront costs but multi-year leases, has been put into liquidation.
Lightforce Solar managing director John Harman told Nine To Noon New Zealand rooftop solar adoption was lagging behind many other countries.
"We have three percent of our houses with rooftop solar. Most OECD countries have 20 percent," he said.
Australia was even further ahead with close to 30 percent of houses equipped with rooftop solar, which made up 20 percent of the grid, he said.
This was thanks to supportive policy, which did not exist in New Zealand, he said.
People needed to be better compensated for supporting the electricity grid through rooftop solar through "symmetrical tariffs", Harman said.
"If I put rooftop solar and invest in generation capacity for New Zealand, whatever the retailer is charging me per unit of of power, they should pay me for the use of that energy off my roof.
Battery storage could also help to provide stability to the grid, and should be compensated as well, he said.
"I'm not looking for subsidies, I'm looking for a level playing field. When a retailer brings power from down south to my house in Auckland, they lose 8 percent in the transmission. If that retailer bought power off me at fair price and sold it to my neighbour, they'd be making 8 percent on the transaction."
This would require wholesale changes to the grid to allow households with rooftop solar to feed back into it, he said.
"Our energy system was set up by engineers 25 years ago, before renewables were around, and now it needs completely redoing."
Rooftop solar was also the most efficient and sustainable form of electricity, he said.
"The cheapest and most democratic way to produce energy is at source of use. That is on your rooftop."
Sustainable Electricity Association chief executive Brendan Winitan told Nine To Noon rooftop solar could help to deal with many of the issues the New Zealand electricity grid faced.
"To understand this we need to take a far bigger view of the of the context of the New Zealand energy system.
"If we look at what has transpired this year in the energy sector: We still have prices going up, we've got lines companies and and Transpower rates - the Commerce Commission has agreed that their rates can be increased by a certain percentage on their regulated return - we have a pylon that fell over, we have storage issues. So security of supply is an issue, resilience will continue to be an issue.
"So where is the gameplan ... to ensure all these issues get looked at and addressed?" he said.
Rooftop solar with a two-way grid system was the best solution for these resilience and security of supply issues, he said.
"What is the value to a lines company? What is the value to a retailer? If you add all that up, what does that look like in the payment to the consumer who's exporting, especially at peak time where power is most expensive?"
There was an energy task-force currently reviewing these issues and many more, with the goal of increasing the uptake of batteries and rooftop solar on residential and commercial properties, he said.
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