Local MP Simon Bridges cuts the ribbon

Its painful how our politically corrupt media gushes like a schoolgirl over anything to do with renewable energy. The glitteratie were all there in central Tauranga the other day to rejoice over the installation of an electric vehicle charging station powered by solar panels.

Hollywood Oscars have nothing on Tauranga. Anyone who is anyone just had to be there. Tauranga Mp Simon Bridges. Mayor Brownless. Powerco Commercial Manager Eric Pellicer and General Manager Andrew McLeod. Jo Wills- Sustainability Options Development Manager, Kristy Hoare Director of My Solar Quotes, blah blah blah…

The illustrious renewables fan Nick Smith was even going to be there but his electric vehicle ran out of power on the northern side of the Kaimais. He tried hitchhiking but no one would pick him up.

Simon Bridges has an electric vehicle, so he was “thrilled” with the new installation. Says Simon ““I’m incredibly excited about electric vehicles. I think they’re the future, and the future is here now. I’ve found them faster, quieter, and cheaper. They’re superior in every way.” Blah blah blah… If you’re not doing renewables readers, you’re just not cool.

The project cost $130K according to local sources. Who paid I’m not sure, although $54K was donated by the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust. Whoever they are. I suspect the taxpayer is being milked somewhere here, as usual, although I don’t know for sure. The far left Green Socialist Progressive National Party has of course already set up a cronyist fund to contribute to such installations, so maybe some taxpayer dollars came from that.

There’s propaganda everywhere on how wonderful this thing is, but strangely, I couldn’t find anything about the expected capabilities of the unit. Such as what is its output capacity and how long will it take to charge a car? How many cars can it charge simultaneously? How many cars can it charge before it runs out of storage?

Some stations overseas offer quick change batteries to overcome this problem, but how convenient is that? Its certainly not cheap.

This important stuff relating to the effectiveness of the charging point was completely overlooked in the glitter of the occasion.

My understanding is can take anything from half an hour to 2-6 hours to charge your car at a charger supplied by grid power. So the length of time at a solar powered unit would be a pretty critical factor, wouldn’t you think? Funny they don’t give it.

You never get any information either on how charging stations are going to cope with the projected increased number of electric vehicles. A petrol tank can be conveniently filled in a few minutes, thereby allowing many vehicles to pass through a refuelling station. What happens when it takes 30 mins to four hours to charge a battery?

Where does the extra electricity come from once these cars are in popular use? Will it still be renewable?

And why is it called renewable when batteries wear out, solar cells require maintenance, and its subsidised by fossil fuel generation?

What is the carbon footprint of manufacturing and disposing of the batteries for these cars, when petrol cars require nothing but a pressed metal fuel tank?

Renewable energy and this particular charging station in Tauranga seems to be an example of style over substance, a circumstance that seems to afflict most developments in renewable energy. Australia is now moving back to coal as the costly realities of unreliable renewables hit home. What is NZ learning from Australia’s experience?

This installation could well be a complete waste of money. A fashionable white elephant. It could even be a complete fraud from an environmental standpoint.

What a shame the BOP Times Green Party propagandist who wrote this article wasn’t a real journalist. Maybe some of these questions would have been asked and reported on.