Energy Saving News
New Zealand Draft new Energy Efficiency Strategies
NEW ZEALAND (NZ) businesses, the public service and households will be encouraged to save energy to help make the country as energy efficient as its Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) partners.
The Draft New Zealand Energy Strategy sticks to the last NZ (Labour) government's 2007 target of having 90% of the country's electricity generated from renewables by 2025, but states that non-renewable energy would be used to guarantee security of supply.
The Draft Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy proposes what NZ Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee called an "ambitious but achievable" target to save 55 petajoules (PJ) of energy by 2015, lifting the country's energy efficiency savings closer to the OECD average.
The draft strategy expects business to save 21PJ and the public sector to reduce its per-head energy consumption by 10% on 2008 levels.
Releasing the drafts for public comment, Brownlee said savings of that order would accelerate New Zealand's rate of energy intensity improvement from a rate of 1% a year to 1.2%, with better conservation and efficiency enhancing productivity, improving energy security, reducing energy bills, and improving the health and wellbeing of the populace, he said.
The draft strategies focus on energy security and affordability, and recognise the vital need for environmental responsibility while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Photo by NASA
Monday 26th July 2010
