Event: Sharon Brettkelly goes to the top of a wind turbine to better understand energy in New Zealand

Climate Conversations

Sharon Brettkelly (pictured) will go to extreme lengths, in this case, heights, to get to the bottom of a good story.

Sharon, who writes for The Newsroom in New Zealand, tells the story this time on The Detail: "Powering New Zealand from a Wellington wind farm".

She writes: "When rain poured into our South Island hydro lakes last week, electricity bosses heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"They’re still wincing from the memories of last winter’s energy crunch, when power became dangerously scarce and wholesale prices shot sky high.

“Droughts are no fun,” says Meridian Energy’s chief executive Mike Roan.

“They’re inevitable though.

“Our power system has been built with droughts in mind. The scale of the southern hydro lakes, Lake Taupō, the combination of them is there to provide that backup stored energy for and when a drought emerges.”

"But the past 12 months have been “horrible” with the August drought and loss of gas supply causing wholesale prices to spike", her story says.