Demand for solar power surges in Taranaki as power, fuel prices keep rising

Tuesday, 7 April 2026

It’s a great view for Sinclair Electrical and Refrigeration’s Opunake area manager Ethan Crawshaw and co-owner Cam Miller, installing a rooftop solar system in Bell Block on Thursday.

Solar panels on their Opunake workshop and New Plymouth homes are saving brothers Cameron and Ben Miller thousands of dollars on fuel and electricity. And they love it.

“My brother and I drive from New Plymouth to Opunake every day. We charge the vehicles while we are at work, and we can get out and back on full EV [electric vehicle]. The savings are astronomical,” Cameron said.

“We think the first year, the solar system on our workshop and retail shops has made about $25,000 in fuel savings and $8000 in power bills as well.”

The brothers were managing directors of Sinclair Electrical, which meant they were well placed to get in ahead of the rush for solar, with customers across the region now queueing for months to have solar systems installed on homes, businesses and farms.

Demand from households, businesses and farmers across the region is keeping solar installers including Crawshaw and Miller flat out.

Demand for solar began heating up about six months ago, and had started to sizzle over the past month, he said, as the Middle East war sent fuel prices soaring.

As well as rooftop solar panels, Miller said more customers were installing EV chargers for cars as they switched to plug-in hybrids or pure electric vehicles.

And orders for solar systems to include batteries had gone from one in 10 to about half, he said.

Demand was also increasing for farm solar systems.

“The numbers really stack up now because power is so expensive,” Cameron said.

He said the solar industry was an exciting place to work, and he saw benefits for Taranaki in the future.

As of September last year, 68,000 homes had solar panels installed, and the numbers are growing.

“We are hearing rumours of some of the big oil and gas operators packing up and leaving in the next few years, and we want to make sure Taranaki is still thriving. If we can make sure we’re making cheap energy, we will keep people here, and we’re not short of sunshine.”

Gas used to be a core part of the business for Aaron Flood, owner of New Plymouth-based Premier Heating, but it had been overtaken by hot water heat pumps, which dovetailed perfectly with rooftop solar.

Now, he was removing one or two gas infinity systems per week and replacing them with heat pumps.

Even without solar, a heat pump was a much cheaper way to heat a household’s water than gas, he said.

“I love gas, I’m a gas fitter, but it just makes sense, and we have to advocate for customers. If they want to go with gas, that’s sweet.”

For most households, hot water heating made up about 20% of their energy costs.

“You can time your heat pump to come on during the day to use the power off your roof, rather than export it to the grid,” Flood said.

Customer demand meant installers around Taranaki were booked up months in advance.

“It’s a two-month wait for any job we are taking in,” Corrigan Electrical operations manager and director Reece Furness said.

“Power bills are increasing and it’s a pretty good time to do it, panel prices are cheaper now and with power prices, the payback period is shorter.”

A solar system for a typical household would cost between $15,000 to $20,000 and have a payback period of five to seven years.

Rising petrol prices has led to unprecedented demand when discounts at the pump are on offer.

If batteries were included the price went up to $25,000 to $30,000, increasing the payback period.

The motivation for most customers was to save money.

“Being greener is important to some people, but the majority just want to save money,” Furness said.

Taranaki Solar director Tony Pope said his company, which was already busy before the war, had seen an increase in inquiries in the recent weeks.

“I think most people are wanting to become a little bit more independent. Possibly they are starting to think of the fragility of where we sit if someone overseas decides to go to war with another country,” he said.

“And staring down the barrel of power cuts in winter because the grid can’t handle it. You don’t have to be a greenie to want to be a bit greener and more sustainable.”

Meanwhile, electric car sales surged across the country in March, with weekly registrations exceeding 1000 for the first time since the Clean Car Discount ended. Driven by rising petrol prices due to Middle East conflicts, EV dealerships reported a 50% jump in sales.

During the week ending March 22, there were1033 registrations of new or New Zealand-new EVs or plug-in hybrid EVs, compared to only 225 in the same week the previous year.