Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ralph Sims: Massey University Professor of Sustainable Energy on the need for oil and gas exploration in New Zealand

Transcript

Ralph Sims: Massey University Professor of Sustainable Energy on the need for oil and gas exploration in New Zealand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right, let's return to our big story of the day,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: big changes for the electricity sector on the way. A
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: new regime for offshore wind is being developed, except to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: be implemented by the middle of next year. A return
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a ban, I should say, on the oil and gas
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ban that was brought in under labor. National wants to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: undo it. However Labor won't support it. So how enduring
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is that for businesses who might want to invest in
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: exploration here in New Zealand. We'll talk about that in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a second.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Here is luxon a country like New Zealand with abundant
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: natural resources shouldn't be in this position. And so the
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: reality is, yes, we do need gas. In terms of
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: that firming part to our energy strategy, we obviously need
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to double the amount of renewables that we have.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Ralph Smith is Nassi University Professor of Sustainable Energy. He's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: with us this morning. Ralph, Good morning, Marita, Ryan, thanks
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: for being with me. Can we do this alone with
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: just renewables?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yes we can because we've got such a resource ofnewables
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: and this is the most opportunity because this is climate
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: carbon free and the other options the governments looking at
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: are really increasing our greenhouse gas emissions, and of course
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: there's no decisions being made here. These are only things
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: that the government is looking at, like reversing oil and
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: gas exploration, importing liquefied natural gas, and they're technically possible
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: to do. There's no guarantees will find gas and importing
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: LNG is expensive, whereas we got the opportunity to develop
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: our renewable energy generation to a greater degree.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We're also when you're talking about intimate and things that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: are uncertain rain when sun I mean those are issues.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: That's why we're in this position in the first place.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Right at the hydro levels.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: It's always a concern with a renewable energy system. But
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: there are bio energy plants that haven't been mentioned where
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: they're very common in Scandinavia, for example, where we're using
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the waste from the forest, we take out the logs,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: don't we leave the slash as it's called behind if
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: we collected that as well, and you can store that
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: and use it at any time, and that's exactly what's
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: happening in Sweden, Finland, Austria, Germany. So there's another opportunity there.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Talk about light, how long before we can harvest the forests.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's sitting there now. In fact, it's a project
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that we looked at twenty years ago. So the technologies
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: that are easy to do. You just chip the slash
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and bring it out and then put it into the
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: bio energy plant, so you're not harvesting the.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Where's the bio energy plant? Do we have one?
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: This is a good point about the decisions that are
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: being looked at here, as electric line companies can own
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: more generation, so they could invest in bio energy plants
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: near to where the forest is and then generate the
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: electricity and sell that to their customers.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Fair enough point here. One, it was twenty years ago
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you first looked at it, why haven't we done it?
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: And two that sounds like something that's away way off yet,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: don't we need guess in the meantime?
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Well, gas is the we way off too? Yeah. Genesis
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Energy are looking to using bio energy in Huntley and
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: to replace it for coal, and they've done some tests
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: on that already, so it's not that far off. Maybe
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: if we look at LNG, it would take a long
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: time to build a infrastructure which has got gas regasification, storage,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: distribution to accept the LNG when it arrives by boat
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: and New Plymouth or whether it might be, and if
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: we reverse the oil and gas exploration. We should note
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: here as well that although the oil and gas offshore
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: ban came in then the existing permits were still going
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: and companies were still looking for oil and gas right
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: the way through and on land as well. Absolutely.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I think the problem there though, is that you why
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: would you look for something you're not sure you can
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: actually get out of the ground and keep all of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: your resources here at the same time, Ralph, I appreciate
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Ralph Smith, Massey University Professor's System.
• 4:09
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• 4:12
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• 4:14
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• 4:16
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