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Speaker 1: Right, let's return to our big story of the day,

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Speaker 1: big changes for the electricity sector on the way. A

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Speaker 1: new regime for offshore wind is being developed, except to

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Speaker 1: be implemented by the middle of next year. A return

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Speaker 1: a ban, I should say, on the oil and gas

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Speaker 1: ban that was brought in under labor. National wants to

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Speaker 1: undo it. However Labor won't support it. So how enduring

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Speaker 1: is that for businesses who might want to invest in

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Speaker 1: exploration here in New Zealand. We'll talk about that in

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Speaker 1: a second.

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Speaker 2: Here is luxon a country like New Zealand with abundant

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Speaker 2: natural resources shouldn't be in this position. And so the

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Speaker 2: reality is, yes, we do need gas. In terms of

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Speaker 2: that firming part to our energy strategy, we obviously need

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Speaker 2: to double the amount of renewables that we have.

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Speaker 1: Ralph Smith is Nassi University Professor of Sustainable Energy. He's

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Speaker 1: with us this morning. Ralph, Good morning, Marita, Ryan, thanks

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Speaker 1: for being with me. Can we do this alone with

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Speaker 1: just renewables?

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Speaker 3: Yes we can because we've got such a resource ofnewables

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Speaker 3: and this is the most opportunity because this is climate

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Speaker 3: carbon free and the other options the governments looking at

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Speaker 3: are really increasing our greenhouse gas emissions, and of course

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Speaker 3: there's no decisions being made here. These are only things

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Speaker 3: that the government is looking at, like reversing oil and

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Speaker 3: gas exploration, importing liquefied natural gas, and they're technically possible

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Speaker 3: to do. There's no guarantees will find gas and importing

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Speaker 3: LNG is expensive, whereas we got the opportunity to develop

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Speaker 3: our renewable energy generation to a greater degree.

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Speaker 1: We're also when you're talking about intimate and things that

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Speaker 1: are uncertain rain when sun I mean those are issues.

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Speaker 1: That's why we're in this position in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Right at the hydro levels.

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Speaker 3: It's always a concern with a renewable energy system. But

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Speaker 3: there are bio energy plants that haven't been mentioned where

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Speaker 3: they're very common in Scandinavia, for example, where we're using

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Speaker 3: the waste from the forest, we take out the logs,

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Speaker 3: don't we leave the slash as it's called behind if

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Speaker 3: we collected that as well, and you can store that

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Speaker 3: and use it at any time, and that's exactly what's

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Speaker 3: happening in Sweden, Finland, Austria, Germany. So there's another opportunity there.

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Speaker 1: Talk about light, how long before we can harvest the forests.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's sitting there now. In fact, it's a project

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Speaker 3: that we looked at twenty years ago. So the technologies

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Speaker 3: that are easy to do. You just chip the slash

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Speaker 3: and bring it out and then put it into the

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Speaker 3: bio energy plant, so you're not harvesting the.

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Speaker 1: Where's the bio energy plant? Do we have one?

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Speaker 3: This is a good point about the decisions that are

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Speaker 3: being looked at here, as electric line companies can own

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Speaker 3: more generation, so they could invest in bio energy plants

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Speaker 3: near to where the forest is and then generate the

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Speaker 3: electricity and sell that to their customers.

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Speaker 1: Fair enough point here. One, it was twenty years ago

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Speaker 1: you first looked at it, why haven't we done it?

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Speaker 1: And two that sounds like something that's away way off yet,

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Speaker 1: don't we need guess in the meantime?

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Speaker 3: Well, gas is the we way off too? Yeah. Genesis

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Speaker 3: Energy are looking to using bio energy in Huntley and

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Speaker 3: to replace it for coal, and they've done some tests

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Speaker 3: on that already, so it's not that far off. Maybe

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Speaker 3: if we look at LNG, it would take a long

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Speaker 3: time to build a infrastructure which has got gas regasification, storage,

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Speaker 3: distribution to accept the LNG when it arrives by boat

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Speaker 3: and New Plymouth or whether it might be, and if

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Speaker 3: we reverse the oil and gas exploration. We should note

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Speaker 3: here as well that although the oil and gas offshore

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Speaker 3: ban came in then the existing permits were still going

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Speaker 3: and companies were still looking for oil and gas right

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Speaker 3: the way through and on land as well. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I think the problem there though, is that you why

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Speaker 1: would you look for something you're not sure you can

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Speaker 1: actually get out of the ground and keep all of

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Speaker 1: your resources here at the same time, Ralph, I appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Ralph Smith, Massey University Professor's System.

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