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Because New Zealand is an island country with ocean barriers all around, the culture and approach of resource utilization in the country is far different than that of a land-locked region such as much of the U.S. or much of central Europe. Additionally, much of the nation has been raised to appreciate the diversity of the country and its diverse landscape. As a result, renewable energy usage is both smart and needed given the limited resources of an island. The major components of New Zealand’s push for renewable energy use can be placed in six categories: hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar, biofuels, and ocean.

Hydroelectric Power

A predominant source of energy for New Zealand for years has been natural gas and combustion-derived energy from plants powered by the burning of the gas. However, hydroelectric sources now make up over 1/10th of the energy production in the country. This pales in comparison to the more than two-thirds of power still derived by imported oil products. However, more than half of the electricity provided comes from the 1/10th portion of hydroelectric resources. In the 1990s, hydroelectric power produced more, close to two-thirds of electricity production, but coal-burning provided an easier energy production method in the 2000s.

The current major power systems are located in the North Island at the Central Plateau zone, various locations along the Waikato River, and the South Island’s Mackenzie Basin.

Geothermal Power

Resources from geothermal sources underground provide a minor component of New Zealand’s overall energy production, only making up a bit more than 10 percent of the electricity production for the country. That said, New Zealand has been at the forefront of geothermal development, so the capacity to take further advantage of the resource is definitely present.

Wind Power

Wind has long been a traditional form of renewable energy. New Zealand has taken advantage of this resource as well. While wind-generated power provides a bare minimum of 3 percent of power in the island, the market has the capacity to grow at least 6 times its current level as soon as permissions are provided by the government.

Solar Heating

With increased technology capacity and the cost of solar panel installation falling, solar power has become more and more common for households. Much of it, like other countries with housing booms, was afforded when real estate booms occurred. New Zealand’s market was no different than the U.S. or Europe. However, while real estate prices dropped, it lasted long enough to create a bigger market for solar and find bigger breakthroughs, reducing the cost of production. Now solar is reachable and affordable for many households, primarily being used for water heating as well as electricity production.

However, on a large scale, solar plants have not been entirely successful so far. Much of this has had to do inconsistent solar exposure in New Zealand versus other parts of the planet.

Biofuels

Bio-matter based fuel is beginning to gain a foothold in New Zealand as of the late 2000s. Much of the island involves significant farming communities who are no strangers to the capabilities of bio-products. Bio-diesel, a fuel made from byproducts of cattle bodies, provides a particularly useful liquid fuel that engines can be run on. At least three companies have capacity of biofuel production, one alone capable of putting out 20 million litres of the energy liquid.

Ocean Energy

Being an island, New Zealand obviously has vast ocean resources to take advantage of. While a number of projects are in motion to develop and push to completion, taking advantage of tidal energy, none have yet come fully online to produce a significant capacity yet.

To date, New Zealand’s oceans are ripe with food industry and transport, but not yet energy. The potential exists however to be harnessed. In some harbors alone the tidal energy that can be produced rate easily over 10 times the power of the country’s strongest rivers.

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