Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to wean New Zealand off coal

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Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to wean New Zealand off coal · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: News out of the Big four Gen Taylor's yesterday. They're
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: importing six hundred thousand tons of coal and storing it
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: at Huntley. This is to protect us from energy security
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: problems like the ones we had last year. It should
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: keep the plant running for another ten years. Mike Cases
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: with the rewiring altat Oh, he's the CEO.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Mike, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan, how are you, my friend?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Very well? Thank you. Good to have you back on
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the show. Now, you're a practical guy, so I know
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that you will understand why we need to do this.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, one hundred percent, and hopefully we can get to
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the no nonsense, no spin answers on this. But yes,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: unfortunately we're in a situation that we need a giant
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: pile of coal at Huntley to keep our energy system running,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and we need to avoid it all costs rolling blackouts,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: which well, you know, we may have come close to
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four with how high the price we
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: went because.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: We thought we had lots of gas and turns out
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we had less than we thought we did, and then
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you end up with a crunch.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: That's one hundred percent right. And the other big problem
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: that we've seen is twenty fifteen, the Activity Commission talked
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: about how we needed to wean ourselves off get off coal.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Nothing happened. Is now twenty twenty five, and I think
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we sort of need to commit as a country maybe
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to this being the last major coal oil order that
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: we ever make.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think it will be?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I hope so. Put simply that we just need to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: think about better ways of managing our large battery that
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: we have, which is our hydro lakes. And one of
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the most exciting things is that, you know, the rollout
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: of you know what, I'm an advocate for the rollout
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: of solar across New Zealand. Rolling out solar across New
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Zealand will ultimately allow us to hold on to our
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: water for longer and burn less coal.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: What about geo thermal I was talking to Shane Jones
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: about this now there. It's hugely expensive to drill for
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and need to do lots of holes apparently, but once
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: you get it, it's year round.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I'm a massive fan of geo thermal and all other
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: forms of renewables. The simple answer is, the more energy
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: that we can generate in the middle of winter, the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: longer we can hold onto that water for and the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: less coal that we need to be. So I think
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: all options should be on the table, and it really
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: comes down to a cost benefit analysis to working out
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: how we keep power bills low or the lowest possible
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: for NEWSIC wonders.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Mike, Mike Casey, rewiring olts O CEO
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 2:16
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• 2:19
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