Kia ora folks! We’re here to make Queenstown the world’s most electric destination. It’s purposefully ambitious and we’re working hard to get there. There are massive benefits on offer to the region, and we are in a great position to do it, but we need everyone to jump on this electric bandwagon.

Read on to see what we've been up to in the month since the last newsletter.

• In-person events over the past month
• Electrify Queenstown win!
• Group discounts expression of interest
• V2G update
• New resources online
• First business trial of Solar for Renters
• More regions added to our Solar Streets map

IRL

The events calendar was pretty full last month, and that’s the way we like it.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined the QEA at Green Drinks with Sustainable Queenstown. We were one ticket shy of a sell out and the room was packed with locals, business owners and curious minds.

Our Community Energy Lead Jade Baker-Edwards explained what the QEA's mission was and how the team was working hard to make electrification practical and achievable in homes and workplaces. She also illustrated just how much of an impact electrifying your life can have on waste with some compelling coffee cup comparisons.

She was joined by local legends Trent Yeo, Toni Glover and Pierre Marasti, who shared insights from their electric journey.

The QEA team also gathered at Remarkables Market for an EV test drive day where locals could hop inside, take a ride and ask questions. Brands like Volvo, Polestar, Geely, Kia, BYD, Hyundai, Zeekr and Farizon were there to show off the latest models, including an impressive all-electric van that would be perfect for all the tradies, and a number of local EV owners also brought their cars along.

The V2P (vehicle-to-pancake) set-up was a real hit and a great conversation starter. The team answered questions like: How far do they go? How do you charge them? Are they expensive? Will they blow up? (Answers: new ones go about as far as petrol cars; you charge them like a phone and mostly at home; because they're so much cheaper to run, you could save between $10,000 - $20,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle; and EVs are between 20 and 80 times less likely to blow up than petrol and diesel vehicles, according to the fire services, which itself is about as likely as being killed in a sloth attack).

Check out a video of the event here.

Our Business Electrification Lead Lowri Swygart also presented to over 100 leaders at the QLDC Economic Snapshots event. More and more businesses are coming to the QEA to see if we can help them reduce costs and improve their margins and, when you focus on the inefficiency of fuels, it's clear there's a massive opportunity for businesses to do more with less - and that opportunity is even bigger if you can produce as much of the energy you need yourself.

It's also about reducing emissions, but we're unlikely to reach our ambitious climate goals if we need to use more expensive substitutes that don't work as well.

Sing when you’re winning

Speaking of events, we were stoked when Electrify Queenstown conference won two categories - The Legacy Award and Excellence in Environmental Sustainability - at the inaugural Bizzie Awards.

Electrify Queenstown was designed to help the region save money, increase resilience and meet our ambitious climate targets. And the win at the Aotearoa Business Events Awards reflected:

• The strength of partnerships across business, community, and government.

• The leadership of sustainably-run business events.

• The momentum building around practical, scalable climate action.

• The shared commitment to long-term regional resilience.

Getting people together in the room is crucial - for inspiration, education and enthusiasm. We helped Destination Queenstown (DQ) with the first event in 2024 and were heavily involved in the multi-day electric extravaganza that won the awards this year. Jade from our QEA team was also a key part of organising this event when she was at DQ. We will be working closely with DQ to make next year's event even bigger and better.

The more the merrier

There’s strength in numbers. And there are also discounts in numbers!

As part of our work at the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator, we’re looking for different ways to make electrification easier and cheaper. One way we’re doing this is by harnessing the community's collective purchasing power to get group discounts with suppliers and we’ve managed to get a few good deals on hot water heat pumps.

Reclaim Energy, Emerald and Daikin are the first companies to offer the QEA group discounts (and they come with good warranties). We are also in discussions with solar suppliers to get a solar bulk buy deal for the districts. More to come on that soon.

If you'd like to express your interest in the hot water heat pump offer, check out some more details and add your name on this form. Signalling your interest does not lock you into a purchase. We also recommend getting a couple of quotes from local installers as install costs can vary significantly.

Going both ways

The first bidirectional chargers have landed for the country’s biggest V2G trial and it is due to be installed very shortly. As project lead Josh Ellison explained to the Mountain Scene, the potential of these big batteries on wheels is huge.

For individual homes, it could let owners plug in to avoid high electricity costs at peak times or export to the grid. Their cars could also play a role in an emergency and keep homes and businesses running if the grid goes down.

As he said: "A new EV can store three to four days’ worth of household electricity use in its battery, and EV owners with a V2G charger and rooftop solar could keep charging their vehicles indefinitely."

A lot of a little is a lot and EVs could also play a crucial role in the energy system. If we electrified half of the nationwide fleet of household cars, they would hold more energy capacity than all the country’s power stations combined. That’s a lot of power, and a lot of vehicle-to-pancake opportunities.

The trial, which is being run by the QEA and EECA, is all about better understanding how this technology will work and unpacking the benefits and barriers in a New Zealand context. There will be technical tests with a few participants and V2G chargers to start, then the trial will be broadened to other applicants.

We’ve had a great response from those in the area who are keen to take part. If you're in Queenstown, fill in your details to be part of the trial and the QEA team will be in touch to assess your suitability as the trial moves next year into broader enrollment.

New resources

Going electric sounds good in theory. How hard could it be to upgrade your old fossil fuel machines to electric equivalents and run them on solar and batteries? In reality, it can be complex and every home and business has different needs and motivations. That’s why we’ve created a range of different resources to help homes and businesses through the process.

Recently, we’ve added a few helpful pages to the website including:

• A guide to electrifying your household vehicle, with a bit of mythbusting and lots of different models
• A guide to electrifying your business fleet.
• There are plenty of solar resources, like a solar for renters guide; a step-by-step guide on powering your business with solar; a solar finance guide, which runs through all the options to pay for it; and a solar quote comparison tool, which ensures it’s apples with apples.

Keep it low

Our Solar for Renters trial is gearing up and we have our first local business lined up for a 104kW system in February. As the Solar for Renters guide shows, there are different ways to make this work, and it will depend on your situation, but it can help conscientious landlords save their tenants money (and also get a return on investment from investing in solar).

We want to hear from tenants and landlords, whether in the residential or commercial space, so get in touch if you would like to find out more or you’re interested in being a part of the trial. We will be testing the software solution being developed by a retailer to facilitate the payments, read the meter etc. in a range of scenarios.

We are also looking into developing a standalone solution (website or app) which will facilitate solar for renters and is not linked to a retailer.

Solar streets

What started in Queenstown is spreading around the country. Our Solar Streets map is gradually filling up with yellow dots as the electricity distribution businesses follow Aurora’s lead and send their data through. PowerNet has also provided data, including for Arrowtown so that has been added.

See what’s happening in our neck and the woods, and zoom out to see what’s happening across the country here.

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Have an electric Christmas and we’ll see you in 2026 ⚡️

The QEA team