Solar power is coming to Northland
Lodestone Energy is planning to build five solar power farms, two of which will be located in Northland. Both Stuff and RNZ have published articles about this.
The first to go online will be in Kaitaia, with construction beginning later this year and completion in 2022, and provide 62GWh annually. Together with the upgraded and expanded geothermal generation at Ngawha, this will provide more energy than the Far North needs and hopefully bring power prices down in that region, which are among the highest in the country. Any excess energy generated will benefit the rest of Northland, and once another solar farm at Dargaville has been added by the end of 2023, much of Northland will be on 100% renewable and locally produced electricity.
Let's get ready for this and support this development with getting off fossil fuels and switching to electricity over the next two to three years. Need a small car that takes us to town and back, or to commute to work, or drive the kids around? Get a used electric vehicle. Still heating the home with wood fire like in the 1800s? Get a heat pump with its three times higher heating efficiency. Gas stove getting old and needing replacement? Switch to an induction cooktop. Want to become part of the renewable electricity grid? Pop rooftop solar on, and a storage battery in the garage or shed. There are so many ways to electrify and increase our energy efficiency, and Gen Less has all the resources we need to learn about it. Also, there's no need for knee-jerk action or panic - we can do all this when opportunities present themselves, like special offers, subsidies, rental and subscription programs with no capital required, or just a great bargain. This decade will bring a lot of progress and changes in the home energy space. Just let's be open-minded, keep our eyes and ears open, tell each other about it, and take action when we can.
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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61.8% Summer
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36.5% Winter
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1.6% Other - I'll share below
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