Power to the people

A description of Net Metering is in order, this is a term to describe electricity being produced from homes or offices or public buildings, mostly generated by solar panels or wind turbines.
Whatever the home does not use is stored onto a grid or an electrical system- as opposed to storing the energy in batteries like it is being done in Puka Puka.
When the home can no longer produce energy, when the sun has set or the wind is not available then the home draws on that stored electricity from the grid.
Meters in a Net Metering situation go both ways, they go forwards to count consumption or they go backwards deducting what energy the home has produced, if a home produces more energy than the house uses then the government or the power supply company pays the home owner for producing it, and why not!, if it costs the country to produce it by buying imported fuel, then why not pay some one local for making it? Its like import substitution, if someone grows cabbages on Rarotonga, then importers of cabbages buy locally grown cabbages.
In the Cook Islands because of where our electricity prices lie, it makes financial sense for Net Metering to be introduced.
In countries like Germany, Japan and some parts of the USA, Net Metering is becoming a powerful incentive for home owners and businesses to reduce their energy consumption (from utilities.)
For governments it spreads the risk, if a whole island produces power and part of the island is hit by a cyclone, at least power is still being generated on part of the island that has survived the most damage. If a fuel ship carrying our countries diesel fuel for our one power station is damaged or delayed, we have no way of keeping our power station going.
In the Cook Islands because our supply of energy leads right off shore to some of the most volatile and unstable places on the planet, we put our lives and our economy at extreme risk by being 100% dependent on imported energy.

Herald Issue 463 10 June
- World famous activist assisting residents
- Budget will decide if residents prosecute Government over landfill
- Forestry project sucking Mangaia dry
- Budget 2010 – fiasco or disaster?