Power shares

[bull....]

I am not sure about how AGL's scheme will work. I do know that in Queensland my SIL received a huge subsidy to install solar panels on her roof, and she receives 40c per unit that she feeds back into the grid. That scheme is now halted for new customers, but she is grandfathered and so still receives that income until such times as her installation is paid for.

The economics for solar do not really stack up for NZ as a whole, but for some areas it can be worthwhile. Anywhere north of 32 deg latitude should certainly be on solar, between 32 and 45 deg check with the available sunshine hours and do your sums, it could be beneficial. South of 45 deg, don't even consider it.

Add in the battery, and the economics do improve a bit, but be aware that the battery does degrade over time, just like an EV car battery does.

Having a very large number of installations in an area could work like a virtual power station, but spread over the whole country, would require a massive dismantling of our electricity market.

thanks jantar economics of solar not very good in nz without govt subsidy makes sense so virtual power plant like you say probably not as feasible at the moment. but interesting development in aus.
guess the economics of getting customers to connect solar and then a power company doing a virtual setup would be far cheaper than paying for a onslow hydro maybe ? or does the peaking capacity of these virtual setups not be capable of doing the same job?

for peoples interest agl in australia is doing a virtual power station

A virtual power plant, or VPP for short, is sometimes used to refer to a network of connected solar batteries that can be managed as one.

The idea is that individual batteries can be coordinated, and in doing so become a pop-up power plant. So small amounts of energy stored in individual batteries can become a large amount of controllable energy. This can help avoid power outages and contribute to making energy more affordable in the future.