James Shaw: Green Party confident Clean Energy Plan will lead to more jobs

The Greens want to subsidise the cost of installing solar power with a 50 percent government grant. It's part of a Clean Energy Plan just released by co-leader James Shaw. He says the Greens will use grants and low-interest loans as a way of getting businesses to transition to solar. Shaw says the Party will also upgrade all 63,000 social and community homes, with solar panels and batteries. "Our next Green Government will finance grants to half the costs of installing solar and batteries at home." The party's also promising to ban new industrial coal boilers in the first 100 days in Government. It will also create a $250 million Clean Energy Fund for local renewable energy projects and will make it easier to build wind turbines. Shaw told The Weekend Collective that this policy will save $1,000 a year per household. On the matter of jobs, he says that Taranaki has moved quickly away from oil and gas after the ban was put into place, and has adopted hydrogen and biofuel. Greenpeace spokeswoman Amanda Larsson says the closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter means there will be more hydro-energy available on the market. "And with an injection of solar and wind and other renewables, it is possible to see out the use of outdated fuels like coal and gas." Shaw says that the closure means that people can move in and utilise that electricity. Larsson says that more than half of New Zealanders want to be able to produce their own energy, but there are a lot of barriers, including the upfront cost. "Being able to get some Government support to be able to make that a bit cheaper will be a real incentive for a lot of people who already want to make their own clean energy." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.