Latest / Best of Business / Rojie Aguilar: Snowplanet general manager on the company teaming up with Sunergise to power the slopes

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Rojie Aguilar: Snowplanet general manager on the company teaming up with Sunergise to power the slopes · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: Snow Planet is using the power of the sun. If
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  Speaker 2: you don't know Snowplanet, it's on the hillside near Silverdale
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  Speaker 2: and Auckland. When you go north of Auckland, they're using
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  Speaker 2: the power of the sun to keep their snow cold.
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  Speaker 2: They've put two three hundred solar panels in the hillside
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  Speaker 2: next to there where you go to have a ski
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  Speaker 2: has to make eighty cubic meters of fresh snow every week,
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  Speaker 2: so I think this will save a bit of money.
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  Speaker 2: Rojie Aguila is the general manager at Snowplanet. Hey Rogie,
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  Speaker 2: good afternoon rain. Hey why did you decide to get
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  Speaker 2: the solar panels put in? Business needs must?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously it works. It is a clean energy. Plus
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  Speaker 3: it all will also save us some power because it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of pedging our power bill because as you know,
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  Speaker 3: power bill is are one of our biggest the biggest
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  Speaker 3: itemin art operating costs. That makes sense in that in
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  Speaker 3: that regard totally.
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  Speaker 2: How much would would it save off Pabo by going
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  Speaker 2: sola Have you done? You must have done the numbers.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it covers thirty percent of our overall power bill
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  Speaker 3: because you know we're twenty four hour operations business. So
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  Speaker 3: during the day it covers the whole If it is sunny,
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  Speaker 3: obviously it covers the whole requirement of snow planet. So
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  Speaker 3: it would save quite a bit, I would, I would estimate,
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  Speaker 3: and probably save ten to twenty percent.
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  Speaker 2: You know, does that include the cost of installation and
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  Speaker 2: the cost of the panels and everything.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it is a PPA arrangement, so it's not ours.
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  Speaker 3: So we buy we actually buy electricity from our business partner,
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  Speaker 3: which is sanagized, so they shoulder all the copecks and
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  Speaker 3: things that are and we sign a PPA arrangement. So
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  Speaker 3: essentially buy the power from them. When it's sunny, we
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  Speaker 3: are the generating.
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  Speaker 2: Where are the panels.
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  Speaker 3: The panels is on the grounds. We have a quite
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  Speaker 3: a space on the other side, on the side of
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  Speaker 3: the building, so we put those on the ground. And yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's it's around a hectar of solar farms.
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  Speaker 2: So they come, they bring the panels, they put them
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  Speaker 2: down on your land and then sell the pound back
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  Speaker 2: to you. Exactly fascinating. How cold does it need to be?
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  Speaker 2: It's snow Planet.
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  Speaker 3: It's minus five is the ambient.
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  Speaker 2: Temperature twenty four hours a day, twenty four.
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  Speaker 3: Hours a day, so sometimes it is it is lower
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  Speaker 3: than that when we are snowmaking at night.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well does this mean more profits? Does this mean
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to get to come and ski cheaper?
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  Speaker 3: Of course, because we don't need to increase the price
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  Speaker 3: that much.
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  Speaker 2: There was Roggie Aguila, who's the general manager of snow Planet.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, imagine trying to keep that place at minus
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  Speaker 2: five when it's all muggy and hot in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of summer. It can't be easy.
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