I refer to Peter Bruce’s excellent column (“Batteries ensure a cold beer waits at home — why hasn’t government twigged?” October 6). I don’t understand why we can’t act on excellent policy (see climate change targets/white papers) or write policy and regulation that actually creates jobs (consider farming for biofuels or the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme). Utility-scale batteries are cheap power, or priceless if you have no power (pass that cold beer, Peter!)
There’s an excellent and growing local battery industry. We have the minerals. We have the best engineers and a competitive manufacturing base. We should apply the 10x or 50x planning principle and/or we should scrap certain regulations. Why were independent IPPs capped at 10MWs, then increased to a 100MWs and then scrapped? Why did this regulation shift take so long?
We need leaders who make decisions. Leadership is a balance between consultation and risk-taking. Our president is 80-20: 80% consultation and 20% risk. A better balance will solve problems faster.
Luke Hutchinson, Via email
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