Co-leaders Chloe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson set out the Green Party’s energy policy, a package intended to lower power bills alongside medium- and long-term investment in a resilient, renewable-powered economy.
Ms Swarbrick said, if elected, the party would establish a publicly owned power company dubbed KiwiPower, using $980 million from the party’s ‘‘super-rich tax’’.
KiwiPower would invest in renewable firming capacity to manage New Zealand’s ‘‘dry year problem’’, where low hydro lake and wind generation contributed to energy shortfalls.
The government’s proposal to address dry years — an $1 billion LNG terminal in Taranaki — would direct New Zealanders’ money into ‘‘greater volatility through investing in more fossil fuel importation’’, she said.
‘‘We are showing that we can have a guaranteed return on investment through lower power bills, security for industry and manufacturing ... through the equivalent investment in KiwiPower, which will provide that firming, effectively backup generation.’’
Larger power companies would be required to provide a portion of their firming capacity to KiwiPower, which would then make it available to the rest of the market.
The party’s policy also included zero-interest clean energy loans, renters’ right to solar, legalising plug-in solar and expanding the government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes grants policy to cover more upgrades.
Asked if the policy was a bottom-line for any coalition talks, Ms Swarbrick said New Zealanders should make it an ‘‘absolute bottom line for all political parties’’.
The co-leaders spoke at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, New Zealand’s first and last site of coal gas manufacturing.
Ms Davidson said ‘‘revolutionising’’ the energy system was key to better financial and environmental outcomes.
‘‘We stand here today in this building that rightly places fossil fuels where they belong — in a museum.’’
Though student flats would be eligible for renters’ solar rights, Ms Swarbrick acknowledged students were not in a position to buy plug-in solar — ‘‘this is why we need a whole transformation of our current economic system’’.
On Sunday, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said solar policies previously announced by National and Labour ‘‘tinker around the edges’’ of the issue and instead pledged to invest in surveying for offshore oil and gas basins for domestic use and international export.
Ms Swarbrick said the proposal was ‘‘setting our money on fire’’.
‘‘Even if there were a hypothetical new source to be found, that would be inherently finite.’’
‘‘What we are talking about investing in is tapping into the abundant, literally renewable energy.’’
