More wind and solar generation needed to meet future demand

Aotearoa New Zealand will require new generation to meet future electricity demand, according to the latest Electricity Demand and Generation Scenarios report released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Electricity demand and generation scenarios is an independent set of scenarios that explore potential future electricity demand, and the generation capacity needed to meet that demand, out to 2050. The independent scenarios are used by the Commerce Commission to assess Transpower’s planning proposals for future capital investment in the electricity transmission grid.

The report shows an 80.9% increase in demand for electricity under favourable economic conditions by 2050. This would result in the current national demand of 39.6 TWh increasing to 71.7 TWh in 2050.