Our energy generation will be net zero by 2035.
Generating energy so you can turn the lights on, cook dinner or charge an EV has an impact on our shared home. We’re lucky that most of our electricity comes from renewable sources like hydro (water) and geothermal (steam). But during peak times when there’s high demand, like when we all get up in the morning and again in the evening, New Zealand often has to rely on energy generated from fossil fuels.
So with some courage and clever thinking we’ve promised to have net zero energy generation by 2035.
We’re planning to achieve this by:
- Continuing to invest in new renewable energy like our wind, steam and solar projects
- Retiring old fossil fuel power stations while increasing low carbon energy generation through Tauhara, our new geothermal power station near Taupō.
- Helping Aotearoa to reduce reliance on fossil fuel during peak times with our Good Plans leading the charge.
- Finding innovative ways to manage emissions – like turning our carbon emissions into bubbles for everything from lager to lemonade. Cheers to that!
Our net zero target relates to scope one and two emissions. These are categorised around what we have direct and indirect control over. Scope three emissions result from things we can influence but don’t have complete control over, for example in our supply chain, our contractors or customers. We're working to tackle these too and will be a greater focus for us in the future.
Since 2012 our scope one and two emissions have almost reduced by a whopping 80%, and since 2021 on average 88% of our energy generation is from renewable sources. The last decade we’ve reduced our generation emission by 70% through retiring three power plants - that’s equivalent to taking 425,000 cars off the road. Pretty epic.
It’s exciting times. An ‘electrified’ Aotearoa where our country is powered by renewable energy without relying on fossil fuels is looking very promising for our collective future.