Last week’s SEANZ conference in Auckland was action-packed – it was great to see the industry gathering in person again. The Smart Ease team was on the ground soaking up the insights and talking to industry.

Here are our key takeaways for Channel Partners.

Collaboration for decarbonisation

The big theme of the event was collaboration – to accelerate decarbonisation goals. An excellent example of collaboration was between our Channel Partner Sunergy and water-heater-specialist Apricus. The businesses worked together to complete two heat-pump-based cylinders, powered by a solar farm, to process milk for Nelson-based Oaklands Milk (Raine) farm. This resulted in the farm not only reducing energy bills, but also reducing carbon emissions from their previous gas water heating technology.
To top it off, the project took out the 2022 SEANZ Fronius Energy Award for Best Environmental Impact. Congratulations, Sunergy!

Increasing the capacity to deliver

While the industry is abuzz with talk about utility-scale solar, the capacity to deliver solutions needs to be beefed up – fast. Right now, there’s less than 5MW of utility-scale solar installed (out of a total of 226MW) in NZ, but 3500MW in development!

More technical training and manpower is needed, and some of the industry’s bigger names are stepping up their development game. Wholesalers building training facilities or travelling roadshows to take the training to installers, and manufacturers setting up training centres and support programmes so installers can become accredited to install their products.

Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki now offers training courses recognised by New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and Lightforce Solar’s Lightforce Academy, won the 2022 SEANZ Fronius Energy Award for Best Community Project.

Business development opportunities

There are lots of opportunities for our Channel Partners to expand or cross sell into EV-charging infrastructure, off-grid systems, as well as help their customers with storage capability.
For more information about EV charging, cross-selling and expanding your capability portfolio, speak to a Smart Ease Account Manager today.