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Speaker 1: Now Christmas came early for Teaway as in the aluminium

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Speaker 1: smelter yesterday. They get to do business. They get to

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Speaker 1: do business in a country where you would have thought

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Speaker 1: of doing business would be encouraged. Anyway. They've been prevented

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Speaker 1: from doing all the business they can because they have

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Speaker 1: a deal, of course with their power company, Meridian, whereby

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Speaker 1: they have to contain themselves if things are a bit

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Speaker 1: tight in the old power department. It is indeed a

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Speaker 1: weird old world where we revel in ideas like AI

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Speaker 1: and crypto and data centers, and yet we don't have

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Speaker 1: the slightest idea where the power to make all this

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Speaker 1: is coming from Big tech is under pressure globally as well.

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Speaker 1: It's claim they've got data centers running and using things

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Speaker 1: like water in areas of the planet where water is scarce.

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Speaker 1: New Zealand wants to be a data center hub and

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Speaker 1: yet can't allow an aluminium plant to run to its

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Speaker 1: capacity because it didn't rain enough. Good news is it

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Speaker 1: has rained a bit lately, so the southern lakes look solid,

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Speaker 1: which means they think we might not be as pinched

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Speaker 1: as we have been in other winters. The idea that

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Speaker 1: you aspire to run a power grid that is reliant

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Speaker 1: on things you have no control over is a very

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Speaker 1: modern version. I would have thought of insanity. We need

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Speaker 1: it to rain, we need it to blow, we need

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Speaker 1: the sun to shine. We have no control over any

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Speaker 1: of those things. So we convince ourselves we aren't idiots

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Speaker 1: by thinking we will build options. So if the sun

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Speaker 1: isn't out, the wind will blow, or if it doesn't blow,

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Speaker 1: at least it will rain. But when it doesn't do

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Speaker 1: any of those things, which it hasn't, we need t

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Speaker 1: y and your average punter to take it easy on

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Speaker 1: the cold mornings. And that is with right here, right now.

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Speaker 1: Hardly any AI or crypto or data centers imagine how

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Speaker 1: stuck we would be if we actually had got any

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Speaker 1: of those things up and running. Gas would help, of course,

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Speaker 1: but labour stopped all that. In our reopening of the

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Speaker 1: market is only just beginning. We really do look very

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. Meantime, the coal comes in from Indonesia,

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Speaker 1: defeating the entire purpose of the climb and exercise of

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Speaker 1: renewables cart before horse anyone. They say it will all

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Speaker 1: work out. Eventually, we will have so much renewable capacity,

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Speaker 1: we'll have all the bases covered. Do you believe that?

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Speaker 1: Do you believe a country that makes its biggest power

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Speaker 1: user limits its capacity every time intercomes really is a

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Speaker 1: country that deals successfully in big picture thinking. For more

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Speaker 1: from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks

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Speaker 1: at B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio