AWARDS FINALIST: Lodestone Energy – Harnessing the sun, phase 1
22 Jul 2024Lodestone Energy set out to deliver, by 2025, the largest solar project Aotearoa has seen. Capitalising quickly on its first-mover advantage, Lodestone became the first New Zealand generation company to reach financial close on three generation plants in a single year - a notable achievement. In just two years, it built two utility-scale solar farms, with progress under way at three other sites. It remains on track to deliver the project at an impressive pace, with all sites due to be completed by 2025.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Ecotricity
18 Jul 2024Ecotricity, New Zealand's only climate-positive certified electricity provider, was the country's fastest-growing retailer in the two years to March. That growth, driven by the company's focus on renewable energy, saw the volume supplied to its customers in 2023 more than triple from two years earlier. The company, majority-owned by Genesis Energy, also achieved profitability for the first time since its launch in 2013. Ecotricity attributes its growth to the climate-positive certainty it can provide to customers - large and small.
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AWARDS FINALIST: WEL Networks – Pioneering positive change
12 Jul 2024WEL Networks is at the forefront of a transformation in New Zealand's energy landscape, from the traditional one-way electricity distribution model to a multi-directional one. During the past 18 months, WEL has achieved several NZ "first-to-market" initiatives, benefitting energy consumers across the country.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Hiringa Energy – Heavy transport’s biggest decarbonisation network
11 Jul 2024Hiringa Energy's green hydrogen refuelling network is not only a first for this country, but also one of the largest hydrogen infrastructure projects for transport in the southern hemisphere. Hydrogen is one of very few technologies capable of decarbonising heavy transport - the country's second-highest emitting sector. Stations
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AWARDS FINALIST: EECA – Regional energy transition accelerator programme
10 Jul 2024The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's Regional Energy Transition Accelerator - or Reta - is a groundbreaking initiative to decarbonise process-heat systems across the country. The programme aims to identify and share what is needed to decarbonise process heat in any given region. It takes a bottom-up approach to determine regional fossil fuel demand and demonstrate the pathways for decarbonisation and the required investment in the supply-side - primarily electricity or biomass - to enable that transition.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Mataura Valley Milk – Project Recharge - High Pressure Electrode Boiler
8 Jul 2024Mataura Valley Milk's Project Recharge has reduced the company's emissions by about 22,000 tonnes a year and demonstrated an effective role for high-pressure electrode boilers in dairy processing. The pioneering decarbonisation project, supported by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, started concept work in early 2021, when the company was expecting to convert its lignite boiler to biomass. But an Energy Transition Accelerator study undertaken with EECA and engineering consultancy Aurecon showed electrification was also feasible.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Contact – Keeping people and homes warm, safe, and connected
5 Jul 2024Contact Energy supports Women's Refuge provide critical help for women and children affected by family violence and to push for longer-term change. The company had supported the organisation since 2020 but formalised a multi-year partnership in July 2022 in order to help make a more lasting impact. Contact says the partnership exemplifies how corporate responsibility can extend beyond profit to make a tangible difference in the community. It is built on three main pillars.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Northpower – creating thriving communities
4 Jul 2024Northpower drew heavily on new technology over the past year to address legacy safety issues on its network while also preparing for the rapid upgrade and expansion of its operation during the coming decade. The company has just delivered a record network spend of $40 million, a 52 per cent increase in capital delivery on the previous year. Faced with a growing demand for capital investment, community owned Northpower also adopted a new investment governance framework in the past year to challenge and justify the value to customers of every dollar spent.
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AWARDS FINALIST: NZAS – Giving old uniforms new life
3 Jul 2024New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) has extended its on-site waste management to include recycling of staff uniforms and safety equipment. Faced with potentially sending 10,000 items of redundant uniform to landfill, NZAS instead formed an innovative and ongoing relationship with Timaru-based Workwear Recycled to deliver a better outcome.
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AWARDS FINALIST: Northpower – home energy education
2 Jul 2024Northpower's innovative Home Energy Education programme is delivering more than $2.5 million of potential annual savings for households in its region experiencing energy hardship. The project, offered in partnership with Ecobulb, aims to provide practical tools and guidance to help reduce the electricity bills of struggling households in the Whangārei and Kaipara districts.
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