Home Energy Fund

Building the Future - Our Plan to Electrify NZ

National is focused on helping Kiwis become more energy independent and reduce their power bills by supporting them to electrify their own homes, farms, and small businesses. A re-elected National Government will continue our plan to Electrify NZ by launching the Home Energy Fund, a central government and council-backed financing platform offering long-term loans for energy resilience investments, and by enabling electrification in the new planning system through clear national rules for small-scale renewables.

What we'll do

Launch the Home Energy Fund

A central government and council-backed financing platform offering long-term loans, secured against the home and repaid through rates, so households can invest in solar, batteries, insulation and other energy resilience measures without large upfront costs.

Enable electrification in the new planning system

Set clear, national rules so that small-scale renewables, including rooftop and ground-mounted solar, micro-hydro and battery storage, are largely permitted as of right on your own property.

Let property owners install rooftop solar without a consent

Allow rooftop solar without a consent, even where height limits or landscape overlays would otherwise get in the way.

Make small-scale on-farm solar a permitted activity

Make small-scale on-farm ground-mounted solar a permitted activity with standard rules to manage genuine effects and sensible safeguards to protect land that is environmentally significant.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Home Energy Fund is a national financing platform jointly owned by central government and participating councils that offers ratepayers low-interest, long-term loans secured against their property. The Home Energy Fund pays the approved installer upfront, and the homeowner repays the low-interest loan over ten years, either through a charge on their rates bill or on sale of their property.

Energy resilience investments eligible for support through the Home Energy Fund include residential solar and battery storage, insulation, heat pumps, and other investments in residential electrification.

Loans from the Home Energy Fund will be available to ratepayers with at least 20% equity in their property. The Home Energy Fund is jointly owned by central government and participating councils.

Kiwi families are under pressure from rising power bills. Rooftop solar, batteries, insulation and modern electric appliances can ease that pressure and make homes more resilient, but high upfront cost put them out of reach for many households, and existing green loans from commercial banks are limited. A re-elected National Government will implement the Home Energy Fund, a national financing platform jointly owned by central government and participating councils that offers ratepayers low-interest, long-term loans secured against their property.

We will set clear, national rules so that small-scale renewables – rooftop and ground-mounted solar, micro-hydro and battery storage – are largely permitted as of right on your own property.

Kiwis still face costly, confusing rules to develop small-scale renewables on their own property, making the process slow and expensive. There are huge opportunities to supercharge small-scale renewables like solar and micro-hydro on Kiwis’ own land. New Zealanders should be able to draw on the abundant natural resources on their own property with as little red tape as possible.