Jennifer Ashton

Generation Mix Wind generation increased to 10% of the generation mix, above its average contribution of 9%. Hydro generation remained well above average at 69% of the mix. Thermal generation remained very low at just 1.1% of the mix, with co-generation also at 1.1% and solar generation exceeding both at 1.2%. The geothermal share remained at 17% of the mix — well below its average contribution of 23% — with multiple geothermal units on planned outage during the week. Total renewable contribution to the mix was 98%, the eighth consecutive week of at least 97% renewable generation.

New Zealand generated more electricity from solar than from fossil fuels last week (excluding co-gen).

Off the back of 98 percent renewable generation over the week, prices fell again to $54/MWh - meaning power prices of 5 cents/kwh for the energy component of domestic consumers.

Clean electricity is officially growing fast enough in China that the level of fossil generation is falling, even as overall demand rises. They've gotten over the hump.

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Graph showing excess mortality for the period 2020-2024 in 40 selected countries across the globe.

Worldwide mortality experience since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2024) shows excess deaths over that period in almost every country measured. Australia (+6%) was below average, and New Zealand (+0.1%) the lowest we measured.

proud of NZ and Australian universities/ librarians standing up to Elsevier-in my view Elsevier has a monopoly like ownership of Scopus the data base that drives university rankings & it charges very high rates to publish work the public often funded in the first place (while not paying reviewers)

Smallest and shortest-lived ozone hole in 5 years closes The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) today confirms that the 2025 Antarctic ozone hole has come to an end on 30 November, marking the earliest closure since 2019. The 2025 ozone hole wa...

This year's ozone hole above Antarctica closed yesterday - it was the earliest since 2019, making it the smallest and shortest-lived in five years @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social
atmosphere.copernicus.eu/smallest-and...

Energy transitions can happen faster than we think:

In 2000 almost 90% of Denmark's electricity was from fossil fuels.

In 2024 less than 10% of Danish electricity was from fossil fuels.

Building housing in Mt Eden = unnatural cruelty.

Kumeu residents doing a three-hour round trip to Pak ‘n Save each weekend = God’s plan; the kiwi dream.

The biggest technological revolution of our lifetime is underway and it's not AI:

I hope my city (Auckland) feels a deep and abiding shame over this fiasco.

A large (maybe 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall) sign on the end of a row of bookshelves that tells the “address” of books that have sensitive content.

Sometimes I think it’s going to be the librarians who will save us all.

Should the economy be regulated by a democratic society to ensure that it creates opportunity and benefit for everyone? Or should it be a plaything for approximately a dozen of the world's most odious assholes? Who knows

Atilla, a fluffy tabby and white cat, looking downward pensively

every aging gentleman must take up a new activity to pass the retirement hours, but only the truly noble of spirit are called to the highest practice of this life stage: wandering around the house all day yelling about everything and nothing

No 'gas renaissance' in landmark report charting NZ's energy future

NZ is on track for a 98 percent renewable power system by 2030, a sweeping new report on the energy system has found.

The Chartists, an enduring reminder that change is possible and vitally important, even when (at the time) you don't 'win'.

Or she sleeps with Chester A Arthur and then writes 10,000 words about sausages. No punctuation.

Literally a Black Mirror episode.

The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation. When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges. It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.

Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.

Yes, THAT Pope.

I wonder how Ed Milliband feels about that.

Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.

Wow - hating on Elsevier makes mainstream news in New Zealand!

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

How long did you have to work at it to come up with a construction that passive?

'They tried to scare us to death': Row at Auckland retirement village as management bans EVs Affected residents have called the ban 'silly' and 'unreasonable', taking it to mediation.

By all means bring in flammable liquid and a device to set fire to it but do not bring in a thing with batteries that has very few moving parts that might cause disaster.
Clap. Clap. Clap.

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/gated-ret...

People think "politics" is what you say, but politics is in fact how you wield power. In that sense, driving a car is one of the most profound ways to reveal what your actual politics are.

How people drive reveals the sickness at the heart of our society: wanting power, but not responsibility.

In today’s NZ Herald

Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.

I’ll admit to finding the US system baffling, but at least I understand that there’s no whip as exists in parliamentary systems. Yelling at a guy for not exercising power he doesn’t have seems unhelpful.

Higher Education, where consultants advocate death as a means for survival and everyone else knows they're simply murdering everything.

Every woman in NZ: “Yeah, that’d be right.”