Lower energy bills.
Lower emissions.
Higher resilience.
Global acclaim.
The Queenstown Electrification Accelerator (QEA) is sending the world a postcard from the future, making it easy for locals to upgrade to electric. Ready to plug in?
What is QEA?
We help homes and businesses save money and emissions through electrification.
The Queenstown Electrification Accelerator (QEA) is a locally-led collective of projects, partnerships, and community resources dedicated to tackling our region's energy challenges head-on.
Queenstown Lakes have committed to one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets - carbon zero by 2030. The region also pays some of the highest prices in the world for imported fossil fuels. We could instead be powering our economy with cheap, locally made electrons and helping to create local jobs. QEA is a coordinated, collaborative, multi-year project to accelerate our progress towards this goal.
Fiercely independent and funded by donations from New Zealand and Central Otago-based organisations, we are here to fight for the homeowners, renters, and businesses of Queenstown to deliver lower bills, more resilience, and lower emissions.
"There’s a massive opportunity to power the local economy with cheap, locally made electrons, many of them generated via solar on rooftops, rather than expensive foreign fossil fuel molecules that come from half way around the world. This will keep money in the community, create local jobs, and hopefully make Queenstown globally recognisable as a leader in low cost, high resilience, and low emissions energy.”
“The Queenstown Electrification Accelerator will showcase how an electrified energy system using smart demand-side flexibility has the potential to defer network and transmission investment, saving consumers money and providing greater regional resilience. The Authority is supporting this project through its Power Innovation Pathway due to its potential to deliver consumer benefits.”
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“The Queenstown Electrification Accelerator builds directly on the direction we’ve set through Council’s Regional Deal proposal, Climate & Biodiversity Plan, Spatial Plan, and Economic Diversification Plan. These strategies share a common purpose to reduce emissions, develop future-focused communities, and strengthen our local resilience. We know energy costs are climbing, our emissions need to fall, and our power supply is vulnerable. This project tackles all three head-on. That’s what excites me, it’s practical, community-driven change, backed by strong local and national partnerships.”
“One of the only ways we’ll get there is to rapidly adopt existing electric technology in our homes and businesses. We need to focus on the things we can do now while the harder challenges - like aviation - continue to be worked on. There is a first mover advantage and economic benefits for the region, and it is a chance for us to create a real visionary point of difference that strengthens Queenstown’s place in the world through the energy transition.”
What we do
We partner with locals to make it easier and cheaper for everyone to go electric.
We are a locally-based team of energy experts and electrification specialists. We provide a range of resources and initiatives to remove barriers to electrification.
More details about our initiatives are coming soon. In the meantime, check out our frequently asked questions:
Energy education & support
Free guides, community workshops, and one-on-one energy consultations to help homes and businesses lower their energy bills and emissions.
Research & analysis
Independent and transparent energy modelling to help make options clear.
Group discounts & early access tech
Bulk buy deals for heat pumps, solar systems, and EVs; partnerships with technology companies for vehicle-to-grid and community batteries.
Affordable finance options
Accessible loans for purchasing electric machines that save money from day one for homes and businesses.
Solar for Renters
Solar-for-renters programmes that extend clean energy benefits beyond homeowners.
Growing local expertise
Workshops and resources for local installers to build our clean energy workforce.
Local stories
Queenstown families & businesses leading the charge
Partner with us
The world’s most electrified destination, one home and business at a time.
QEA is here to help homes and businesses electrify, to save money on bills, strengthen resilience, eliminate emissions, and lead the world in sustainable tourism. Together, we're aiming to make Queenstown the first destination on Earth powered entirely by clean energy.
To achieve this, we need homeowners, businesses, and the energy sector to get onboard with the pilot and help to, as Sir Peter Blake almost said, make the electric boat go faster.
We’re looking for as many homes as possible to commit to upgrading their hot water, cooking, heating and driving to electric equivalents, install solar or batteries, buy an EV and use tech to get smarter about their energy use.
We need local businesses to get involved, whether that’s committing to their own electrification plan, working with the project team or offering up some incentives.
This project is conceived by Rewiring Aotearoa and supported by Destination Queenstown, Ara Ake, EECA, QLDC and others.
Are you a supplier, installer, potential funder, or sponsor? We'd love to partner with you to pioneer Aotearoa's energy future in Tahuna.
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