The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is throwing shade on the Green Party’s new policies to install solar panels on state houses and subsidise them for private residences, which would cost taxpayers $806,000,000 over three years.

Taxpayers Union spokesperson Islay Aitchison says, “Every new dollar of spending is another dollar of debt, which young New Zealanders and their children will have to repay. Piling on costs for future generations, for nice-to-haves like solar panels, is a betrayal to the Green Party’s own core voter base.”

“Solar panels aren’t even the kind of silver bullet that might begin to justify this policy. They’re only effective when the sun is out and it’s extremely difficult to store power.”

“Once users are home from work or it gets cold enough to need the heater on, they’ll have to rely on traditional power sources anyway. In other words, solar panels wouldn’t address peak-time power use and the economics of the electricity network would remain unchanged.”

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