With Powerhouse Wind almost a quarter of their way to their funding goal, some pretty awesome investors are coming out of the woodwork. Yesterday the team received this email from Hamish from Wellington who has pledged on their campaign.
My wife and I work pretty hard in Wellington with a dream of one day being largely self-sufficient on our block of dirt in the Coromandel. We have a shed up there currently and I have been playing with panels, charge controllers, batteries and inverters. I love the thought of not being dependant on suppliers and I enjoy the technology so the tinkering with solar has been both fun and practical.
We have had a quote for $86K to get power to our site so it was always going to be solar. We do have a budget though and the biggest concern for me was the size and cost of batteries and backup required to get through extended grey periods. It doesn’t sit well for me that when relying on the sun you have to effectively over-size your system to cope with the variances in weather and season. The research into wind turbines left me feeling that they were probably a bit expensive, quite intrusive, and overall quite agricultural. Once you add resource consent it tipped the wrong way for me.
When I saw your PledgeMe campaign things instantly tipped back the other way: a local manufacturer (really important), an efficient and quiet product, and reasonably priced. To cap it all off my wife and I want to support Kiwi business and innovation (this is our first investment in something productive i.e. not property).
I had to slow myself down to research your proposition but can still say that I am very proud to be the 2nd pledger!
I’m happy to have been given the opportunity to be a part of this. Thank you.
And this is the cool thing about equity crowdfunding: it allows companies to connect with people. Not only do Powerhouse now have an investor, they have a customer, and a champion who is going to proudly power his shed with a ThinAir!
Powerhouse still have a month to run on their campaign, so check out their offer here.
This is a very positive post from Hamish, but one question it raises – and doesn’t address in describing his turnaround is the question of council consents. How possible is this in an urban area, for example along the Eastern Hills of Wellington?
Hi Gary, Hamish here. The hassle doesn’t go away. Resource consents will be required. But what I have found is that while we have a picture of council being officious and obstructive they actually do want what is best for the environment and neighbours etc. That means that any good story (and a wind turbine is the right story) will not be obstructed, you just need to do the paper work. You probably can’t have one on a 1/4 acre section, but where you are not impacting your neighbours – you bet.
Thanks Hamish!
Hi Gary
Yes a 12metre high turbine on a 1/4 acre section is not a starter. the ones we have put up around Dunedin have been on lifestlye blocks.
We have found the Dunedin Council to be very supportive to renewable energy and in their new energy plan, still to be adopted, they have allowed a wind turbine to be a permitted activity in rural residential areas subject to a few conditions.
We were at a SEANZ expo in Wellington a couple of years ago and had a very positive interaction with one of the city planners, who was very keen to help with sound evaluation.
generally I think their is a lot of support for renewable energy.