Dr Sean Simpson from Lanzatech
On 8th October, Dr Sean Simpson from Lanzatech will be speaking at the University of Auckland, on the subject of “Climate-friendly fuel: A challenge of scale and time”. This is part of the Energy Centre’s Energy Matters lecture series.
Sean is a great speaker – I saw him give a keynote address at the Energy Conference back in March – so I’d strongly recommend coming along if you’re interested in these issues, or even just if you’re into science or commercialising new technologies.…
0 Comments Reflections on Melbourne and Sydney
2014 was an auspicious year. Whether by cosmic alignment or fickle chance, Easter Monday and Anzac Day fell in the same week, and I was able to shoot off to Melbourne and Sydney for ten days with only three days off from work.…
Election results, my first thoughts and so on
So, the 2014 election results are in, with an emphatic win for National. Six years into his Prime Ministership, and having just been re-elected for a third term, John Key has achieved what very few NZ politicians have done before him; he remains trusted, respected, admired and even liked by a large proportion of the public.…
Auckland’s city centre is getting more diverse
This post is the first part of what will be a three-part series on Auckland’s city centre and the 2013 census stats on it. Today, I’m looking at the changing demographics of the city centre.
Age Groups
The graph below shows the changing age structure of city centre residents, from 1996 through to 2013: As shown here, we’re seeing a broader mix of age groups starting to live in the city centre.…
Is it the right time for Solar Homes?
The Green Party has some great transport policies, and have recently announced their support for the Congestion Free Network as one of those policies. However, I haven’t been as impressed with the Greens’ energy policies (or any of the other parties’ ones, for that matter).…
Anyone remember global warming?
As an economist, I get a bit annoyed about inefficient spending (which the Roads of National Significance are), and frustrated at the lack of economic thinking that goes into party policies (all political parties come out badly here – e.g. Labour’s Working For Families seriously messed up marginal tax rates and incentives to work more for mid-income earners).…
Precinct Properties update
Precinct Properties have just released their annual results, and there are some interesting updates on the Downtown Shopping Centre and other projects.
Downtown Shopping Centre
According to Precinct, they’ve completed the master plan for the development, although this hasn’t been publicly released as far as I’m aware.…
Electric vehicles (part 4)
It’s been a while since the last post in this series on electric vehicles (here are parts one, two and three), but this post is number four. Today, I’m looking at the costs of these cars – both their running costs, and their capital costs.…
Auckland fuel spending by area
The company I work for, RCG Ltd, has just released some new research which I’ve been working on over the last few months. It looks at how much Auckland households spend in petrol stations, living in different parts of the city.…
Update on the Downtown Shopping Centre
There’s a good article up on the Herald website today, with an update on what’s happening with the Downtown Shopping Centre. I’d suggest heading over there and checking it out. The article notes that “Precinct [Properties] expects to release images of its plans towards the end of the year and hopes to start building in 2016”.…
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