Energy

The time is ripe for a Dunedin energy plan. But will the crucial consensus and support be there to give it wings? Bruce Munro takes a look.

A Dunedin man's dream of manufacturing small wind turbines for domestic electricity production is in danger of being shelved for want of money.

The Government must secure the place of solar energy, write Richard and Hamish McKenzie.

High-pressure rock fracturing, or "fracking" is a technology to release rock-bound oil and gas for an increasingly energy-hungry world, but it has also become the call to arms for environmentalists. Business Reporter Simon Hartley looks at where the battle-lines are being drawn by the numerous fracking factions.

The price of shares in the partially-listed state owned enterprises will be pushed up significantly as institutional investors, particularly superannuation funds, compete to meet demand.

The value of 80 million tonnes of high quality export coal is about to weighed up against nationally endangered and vulnerable animals and other rare flora and fauna - all residing in and around the Denniston Plateau looming above Westport, on the West Coast.

A former Otago couple are out to take the energy bar market by storm.

Large colourful crops of oil-seed rape may become a more common sight on Otago farms in the future as the biofuel revolution gathers momentum.

The arrival from Germany this month of four new transformers at the Transpower high-voltage link at Benmore has given a boost to a $672 million upgrade of the electricity line between the North and South islands.

Former Energy Minister Max Bradford takes issues with criticism of the electricity reforms of the 1990s. It is policies since 2002 that have caused prices to explode.

Kissing goodbye to your power bill is one of the dreams of the modern age - and it might not be as far off as we think. New energy technology using the sun to run the dishwasher and the big-screen TV is coming down in price so quickly it could be producing electricity at the same price as that available from the national grid in as little as five years. Mark Price reports.

When UK researcher Dr Rebecca Ford heard about the innovative energy cultures project under way at the University of Otago, she knew she wanted to be part of it.

Contact Energy Ltd is welcoming the granting of resource consents for 168 wind turbines and transmission lines to its proposed Hauauru ma raki wind farm in the Waikato.

A new Government policy on renewable electricity generation will have more effect in the Waitaki district than in some other areas of New Zealand, Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins believes.