The venture is a partnership between Victoria and the National Energy Research Institute (NERI), with support from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, youth-led climate change organisation Generation Zero, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), the British High Commission, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the United Kingdom.
The project will see students adapt the United Kingdom’s 2050 Pathways Calculator website (http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk) and user-friendly simulation tool (http://my2050.decc.gov.uk/), to the New Zealand context, with advice from industry experts and policy makers.
The goal of the project is to identify a range of realistic energy futures for New Zealand and communicate them to the public in a way that encourages open and transparent debate on the topic.
Dr Rebecca Ford, from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, says the result will be a powerful tool anyone can access to explore the options we have for energy supply and demand, and the implications of the choices we might make.
“We’re so excited about this project, as it provides a real chance to engage New Zealanders, from school children right through to policy makers, in thinking and talking about our energy future,” she says.
Paul Atkins, Chief Executive of NERI, adds that the tool that will empower people to contribute to an informed dialogue about New Zealand's energy choices. “Taking the pop-up shop concept and forming what may be New Zealand's first pop-up lab at Victoria for a three-month period over the summer, we are providing opportunity through the process of building the model, as well as through the end product itself,” he says.
“Our lives and our economy revolve around energy,” says Paul Young, from Generation Zero. “With climate change and other challenges to our current energy systems, New Zealand has some important choices to make.”
There are 10 summer scholarships available for students interested in working on the project between November 2014 and February 2015. For more information visit www.victoria.ac.nz and search ‘2050 ecs scholarship’. Applications close on 1 October 2014.