Media Release Marlborough And Nelson Councils Push Solar Message
Monday 11 July 2011, 5:55PM
By Marlborough District Council
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Marlborough and Nelson Councils push solar message in 'The Solar promise' nationwide campaign launched today
Marlborough Mayor Alistair Sowman is joining forces with his Nelson counterpart Aldo Miccio in Wellington today for a nationwide launch of ‘The Solar Promise’, a campaign to encourage all New Zealand councils to embrace solar, to help their ratepayers turn sunshine into savings.
The Solar Promise calls for councils, as well as central government, individuals and businesses, to do what they can to help drive down the cost of solar power installation.
Today, Mr Miccio and Mr Sowman, supported by other mayors, held a briefing in Wellington calling for all other local bodies leaders to consider solar options for their communities.
Aldo Miccio says that a 2008 feasibility study carried out in partnership with the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) and SolarCity showed the government’s solar grant alone was not enough to help communities go solar.
“The study was clear: families want the immediate cash benefits from solar’s savings, but they need to spread the cost of solar for it to be affordable,” Mr Miccio says.
The Solar Saver Scheme is a financing mechanism to help home owners spread the cost of going solar by paying off solar installation costs through their rates.
The Marlborough District has committed to the Solar Saver Scheme through its Annual Plan. A one-year pilot programme from 2010-11 has been completed and arrangements for implementing the project are being worked on.
One free resource we have here in abundance is sunshine so it makes sense to be working on this across the top of the south, said Mr Sowman.
“In Marlborough we’ve decided to support this in principle. It’s just a case of finalising the details of the programme,” he said.
Mr Miccio says the Solar Saver Scheme has been a huge success for Nelson.
“In the scheme’s first year Nelson families put more solar systems on their roofs than the whole of Auckland City, immediately getting up to one week’s free power every month,” he says.