New Zealand: Energy
America's booming marijuana industry is an energy hog
20 Jul 2016
As Americans go to the polls in November, at least four states will consider ballot questions on marijuana legalisation.
Monkey business threatening India's solar development
18 Jul 2016
Indian officials are looking into offering insurance for solar panel owners that would cover natural disasters, extreme weather, theft ... and monkey damage.
POWER STRUGGLE: Why the energy market doesn't work
15 Jul 2016
The energy market must be fundamentally redesigned to deal with climate change, say the authors of two studies comparing the impacts of photovoltaics and fossil fuels supply chains.
New energy putting a dent in emissions
15 Jul 2016
Americans are using less electricity as buildings become more energy-efficient and industrial power demand weakens.
POWER SHOCK: Just how climate friendly are we?
14 Jul 2016
New Zealand’s electricity generation might not be as climate friendly as we think.
Three reasons to be cheerful about the 1.5deg target
14 Jul 2016
The recent streak of record-breaking temperatures has shown that climate change is not waiting for the world to take decisive action.
Hotel installs biggest rooftop solar array in US
14 Jul 2016
The largest rooftop solar array in the United States has been installed on top of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
No worries, says Republican Party, coal is clean
13 Jul 2016
The Republican National Convention's draft platform officially describes coal as "an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource."
Meet the woman who took on Canada’s tar sand barons
12 Jul 2016
Canada’s tar sand fields remind environmentalist Tzeporah Berman of Mordor, the evil land of fire and death in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
BONUS BILLION: Our untouched energy potential
11 Jul 2016
New Zealand businesses have a billion dollars worth of unrealised energy efficiency potential, says the head of the country’s energy conservation authority.
World's largest storage battery will power LA
11 Jul 2016
More than 18,000 lithium ion battery packs could replace a gas-fired power plant used to meet peak demand in Los Angeles.
Electric Highway to expand in UK
11 Jul 2016
Ecotricity will start charging electric car drivers for using its British Electric Highway – Europe’s most comprehensive car charging network.
Fonterra signs on as biodiesel pioneer
8 Jul 2016
Dairy co-operative Fonterra has signed up as the first customer for Z Energy’s new biodiesel.
More companies looking beyond lightbulbs
8 Jul 2016
More companies are showing an interest in generating all of their energy and installing microgrids for the best available resiliency.
How nuclear records paper over the flaws
7 Jul 2016
The nuclear industry is celebrating breaking records that have stood for a quarter of a century − but a new update on its successes still fails to disperse the clouds over its future.
Piles of dirty secrets behind clean coal project
7 Jul 2016
A Mississippi project, a centerpiece of President Obama’s climate plan, has been plagued by problems that managers tried to conceal, and by cost overruns and questions of who will pay.
US farmers turn their tobacco into jet fuel
7 Jul 2016
As the demand for tobacco declines in the US, farmers in Virginia are experimenting with turning the crop into viable biofuel.
Vector adds up benefits of charging stations
6 Jul 2016
Vector says its seven electric vehicle charging stations in Auckland have potentially prevented 29,000 kilograms of carbon emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
Norway eyes full carbon capture by 2022
5 Jul 2016
Norway says that by 2022 it could realise every step in the development of a technology many see as critical to reducing global carbon emissions, carbon capture and storage.
Energy leaders renew faith in renewables
4 Jul 2016
Energy Ministers and senior officials meeting at the G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Beijing have recognised recent progress to scale up renewable energy and examined opportunities for even greater action today.
Green and cool roofs provide relief for hot cities
4 Jul 2016
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and the United Nations projects that this share will rise to 70 per cent by 2050.
Clinton's ambitious plan avoids carbon tax
4 Jul 2016
Hillary Clinton has promised to one-up President Obama on climate change, vowing to produce a third of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2027, while spending billions of dollars to transform the energy economy.
Argentina to launch landmark renewables programme
4 Jul 2016
Argentina will launch an innovative renewable energy programme on August 22 with a public auction to buy 1000 MW of renewable energy.
Brexit hot air causes climate project problems
1 Jul 2016
The shock waves felt round the world at the UK’s decision in a referendum to leave the European Union will have unexpected consequences for some major projects linked to climate change.
Government makes energy-use facts available
29 Jun 2016
Three years’ worth of information on New Zealand’s energy use is now available to the public.
How China can harness wind of change
29 Jun 2016
Strategically siting wind turbines where their energy can most easily be fed into the national grid could help to meet more than a quarter of China’s massive electricity demand.
Oakland votes to ban coal shipments
29 Jun 2016
Officials in Oakland, California, have effectively ended proposals to open a new coal export terminal by voting to ban the transport and storage of the fossil fuel within city limits.
Siemens freezes UK wind power investment
29 Jun 2016
Siemens is putting new wind power investment plans in the UK on hold due to uncertainty caused by last week’s Brexit vote.
Wind and solar have won – it’s too late for the rest
28 Jun 2016
Across the world, solar photovoltaics and wind are the dominant clean energy technologies. This dominance is likely to become overwhelming over the next few years, preventing other clean energy from growing much.
Germany agrees to ban fracking
28 Jun 2016
German politicians have approved a law that bans fracking, ending years of dispute over the controversial technology to release oil and gas locked deep underground.
Berlin pulls out of fossil fuels
27 Jun 2016
Berlin’s parliament has voted to pull its money out of coal, gas and oil companies.
A brief history of fossil-fuelled climate denial
24 Jun 2016
The fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars on confusing the public about climate change. But the role of vested interests in climate science denial is only half the picture.
COAL PART 6: Infographic, the state of coal
24 Jun 2016
Coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This is the sixth in a series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future.
Solar could meet 13% of global power by 2030
24 Jun 2016
The global share of electricity generated from solar power could leap from 2 per cent in 2016 to 13 per cent by the end of the next decade as falling costs drive investments around the world.
EU smashes 2020 emissions target six years early
23 Jun 2016
The European Union soared past its 2020 carbon cutting goal six years early, according to just-released European Environment Agency data.
COAL PART 5: China’s future is up in the air
23 Jun 2016
As the world moves to combat climate change, it’s increasingly doubtful that coal will continue to be a viable energy source, because of its high greenhouse gas emissions. Part 5 of a series.
PUMP SLUMP: True carbon cost would punish petrol
22 Jun 2016
Pricing the true cost of carbon pollution into fossil fuels would push retail petrol prices up 42 cents a litre, making electric vehicles far more attractive, according to a new report.
Experts offer help to victims of solar charge
22 Jun 2016
Greenpeace has pooled its renewable energy and legal experts to create a solar hot desk to help people affected by New Zealand’s first charge for using solar energy.
Engineers build tower to power-up phones
22 Jun 2016
Engineers from WelTec’s School of Engineering and the School of Creative Industries have designed and built a solar-powered cell-phone charging tower.
COAL PART 4: Carbon capture unlikely to be the saviour
22 Jun 2016
Coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. This series looks at coal’s past, present and uncertain future.
Using CO2 could improve fracking efficiency
22 Jun 2016
Adding carbon dioxide instead of water to fracking fluids could help to fight climate change – and improve fracking efficiency, scientists say.
What do you do with your old solar panels?
21 Jun 2016
Disposing of old photovoltaic panels is going to be a big business, a new report says.
China set for 25% of electricity from wind by 2030
21 Jun 2016
China is on track to generate more than a quarter of its electricity from wind power by 2030, and the figure could rise to nearly a third with power sector reforms, a new study has found.
Fonterra nod pleases bioenergy industry
20 Jun 2016
The approval for Fonterra to build a new milk-drying plant that will be partially fuelled by wood is a step forward for the diary giant, says the Bioenergy Association.
Battery miracle will transform power generation
20 Jun 2016
Low-cost, high-performance electric batteries are a game changer for the two key clean energy sectors: power generation and transportation.
Should China save its last wild river?
20 Jun 2016
With global temperatures rising, can China afford to protect its rivers and forgo an alternative to the coal-fired plants responsible for much of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions?
Islands could become first 100% renewable nations
17 Jun 2016
The rich world might soon be shown up by small, tropical island nations which have plenty of wind and sun and aren’t lumbered with outdated, base-load power plants to keep running.
Inside South Africa’s battle between coal and renewables
17 Jun 2016
Pretoria’s generous energy subsidies have got the country used to cheap, dirty power – but change is on the way as solar and wind prices plummet.
COAL PART 3: How miners secured workers' rights
14 Jun 2016
Part three of this series examines coal’s role in the development of industrial relations. In New Zealand, it was a dispute at the West Coast's Blackball mine, over a lunch break, that led to the formation of the Federation of Labour (the "Red Feds"), and then to the birth of the Labour Party.
Govt overhaul leaves the door open for coal mining on conservation land
Fri 12 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | The Government’s sweeping reclassification of thousands of hectares of publicly-owned conservation land has met with sharp criticism, with environmental groups saying the decision leaves vulnerable ecosystems exposed to mining and development.
Govt warned that scrapping ag emission pricing comes with risks
Thu 11 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s move to halt plans for agricultural emissions pricing without replacing it with any other action will leave New Zealand facing a bigger gap to meet its third emissions budget, Environment ministry officials have warned.
Transport dominates NZ’s rising consumer emissions
Wed 10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Transport pollution was the biggest contributor to an increase in New Zealand’s consumption-based emissions in 2023, with emissions from household travel up 12%, and consumption-based emissions totalling 58.3 million tonnes – up 1.6% from the previous year.
Christchurch Airport boasts world-first liquid-hydrogen refuelling for test aircraft
30 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | Local companies working on hydrogen-electric flight have made ‘a significant step forward’ in successfully filling aviation tanks with liquid hydrogen produced and stored on-site at an international airport for the first time.
Uncertainty eroding confidence in forestry sector
5 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Warnings are mounting that tree planting is set to plunge to “very close to zero”, as new Ministry for Primary Industries data shows ETS registration applications falling sharply as confidence in forestry declines.
Investors must support positive climate-tech
28 Nov 2025
OPINION: We need better leadership than the current ‘climate opportunism’ that is rife in the Beehive, and we need to back a marketplace that will make it happen, writes Rob Campbell.
