Going solar in Wellington schools.

Going to school in days of sun are a fond memory for many, but soon the experience will be even more solar powered, thanks to a partnership between Wellington City Council and Genesis Energy. This partnership will put rooftop solar panels in 12 Wellington schools. This should ease pressure on school budgets, as well as educate the next generation on the effectiveness of solar microgeneration.

Many myths exist about solar power, including doubts that solar panels can deliver enough energy to run a home. Yet in Europe and in the UK where solar is rather more common, people are very happy with the energy surpluses their residential roof top solar systems provide, resulting in cheques and rebates from grid energy providers.

These myths are encouraged of course by New Zealand grid providers and political conservatives who see our energy infrastructure as a valuable asset to be sold to multinational interests. Having game changing competition would ruin that value and any prospect of get a "decent" price for our big generators.



The fact is, the technology works, panels specced at 23% efficiency are available in New Zealand, and Genesis will pay retail prices, for now anyway, for excess energy fed back into the grid. The incentive for Genesis may well be that it helps them avoid investing in new generation, which would sink quarterly returns.

See also
  Stuff
  Solar on your roof for $2.50/day for water $3.50/day for PV.
  New Green energy policy for big small scale energy(pdf)