Get smart, think small: Local energy systems for New Zealand

Energy is at the heart of our daily lives, but we have little or no control over the distant sources of supply. We rely overwhelmingly on the bigger system and those who manage it.

From production and use of energy come many of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. To reduce these emissions we need to wring more value out of every unit of energy we produce. Climate change will also require us to build more resilient systems.

These concerns, along with the opportunities now arising from new energy technologies, prompted this study. These 'local energy' technologies offer a degree of control never before achieved over how we source and manage our energy. As a British study concluded:

"Making energy generation and management part and parcel of people's homes and schools may hold the key to empowering and engaging energy consumers for the first time."

Our culture of relying on large-unit, supply-side energy solutions is deeply ingrained. But we must collectively accept we are rapidly moving into a very different world with new options, and our ideas of energy security must change.