Hughes Gareth: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5952. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. In the last couple of weeks we have seen more than 1000 megawatts of fossil fuel generation at Southdown Ōtāhuhu B and Huntly Power Station announced to close because of renewables being cheaper. This is fantastic news for our climate particularly in the current political climate which does not exactly focus on reducing emissions. These three stations were responsible for 2.5 million tonnes of carbon pollution a year. The good news is that this is going to up our renewables percentage to around 87 percent.It is important to point out this is not happening because of Government policy but despite it. Under National what we have seen is a Government lavish attention when it comes to fossil fuels. We have seen tax breaks. We have seen subsidies. We have seen lavish jaunts. We have seen laws changed under urgency. We have seen the navy called out on iwi protestors.So what I would like to say today is that as our country gets close to the 90 percent by 2025 target 10 years early let us work together. Let us focus on a bit more ambition a bit more attention and a bit more leadership. Let us work together and set a target of 100 percent renewables because 100 percent is 100 percent affordable it is 100 percent achievable and it is 100 percent desirable.Imagine the brand benefits for our country and imagine the brand benefits for our companies if we were 100 percent a clean-energy country. Already our “clean green” brand has been valued at $20 billion per annum and PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates we could be earning an extra $22 billion per annum with clean-energy exports.Hon Member: How? How?GARETH HUGHES: Listen to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Despite all the positive economic forecasts and despite the wealth of opportunities our Government risks being left behind. Globally clean-energy investment has far outstripped fossil fuels. Take solar for example: last year alone $114 billion was invested in solar across the world. That was part of $2 trillion invested over the last 10 years. In the States every 4 minutes we see a new business or home putting solar panels on the roof. Across the Ditch in Australia there are a million homes with solar panels.Kiwis want some of this too because Kiwis love their DIY. They want a sense of greater energy freedom and independence from the power companies. They want to go solar. They want to produce their own power on their roofs or what I call DIY power. As consumers they do not want to just sit back and passively pay their power bills to the big power companies. They want to engage with the electricity system and become players themselves.However for some in New Zealand the solar dream has become a solar headache. I remember meeting Roly and Gail Runciman in Howick in west Auckland. Roly and Gail are superannuitants on a fixed income and they invested their savings in solar panels on their roofs to try to fix some of their power bills in their retirement years. Last year Roly took me up on his roof and proudly showed me his panels and he also told me about how it was the electricity companies that had all the power to set the terms the conditions and the buy-back rates. Roly told me—he said that it is stacked against someone who wants to do something a bit entrepreneurial as well as trying to do something for the country.This is a major problem because currently it is the electricity companies that have all the power in the relationship. They set the terms the conditions and the buy-back rates for what people have paid for feeding their small surplus electricity back into the grid. They are also telling me they are facing a huge number of barriers when it comes to connecting with their local distributors. Late last year we saw two major electricity companies drop their buy-back rates at short notice from 50 percent to 72 percent.Last week my solar bill was drawn from the ballot. I am trying to give people like Roly and Gail a fair go. I want to empower the Electricity Authority to act as an independent umpire. If we invest in solar and if we give these people wanting to do the right thing wanting to gain more energy independence wanting to do it themselves—we should give them a fair go. We should break down those barriers. It is not about subsidies. It is not about making them compete with the electricity generators or earn a massive fortune from their solar panels. It is simply about giving them a fair go.It is about correcting a market imbalance. It is part of the way our country can get to 100 percent because getting there is going to see Kiwis at work installing insulation under the roofs and putting solar panels on top. Getting there is going to see communities at work installing things like wind turbines and geothermal plants. Getting there is going to see communities investing in a smarter grid.I remember the old saying from farmers that you will not get there if you start from here. The fact is that the Government has not supported solar energy but if we work together we can get there from here today.