| 3 “We turned a $50,000 diesel bill into essentially a $25,000 revenue stream for our farm by running off energy that we largely create ourselves.” T TRussell Fredric Harnessing the power of electricity Mike Casey, chief executive of Rewiring Aotearoa, has turned Forest Lodge Orchard into a working demonstration of farm electrification. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Rewiring Aotearoa Central Otago entrepreneur and cherry orchardist, Mike Casey, chief executive of Rewiring Aotearoa, has turned Forest Lodge Orchard into a working demonstration of farm electrification. Owned by Mike and his wife, Rebecca, and believed to be the world’s first fully electrified, zero-fossil-fuel commercial cherry orchard, Forest Lodge is the practical foundation for Mike’s work. From 2020 to 2022, he replaced its fossil-fuel machinery with 21 electric machines, covering tractors, irrigation, frost-fighting fans and the truck used to take cherries to the packhouse. “Everything is electric. We don’t burn any diesel or gas on our farm at all,” Mike says. The change has altered the economics of the orchard as well as its energy use. Forest Lodge has turned what was a $50,000 annual diesel bill into an energy revenue stream, generating about 92% of the energy it uses on the farm and producing about four times its own requirements. “We turned a $50,000 diesel bill into essentially a $25,000 revenue stream for our farm by running off energy that we largely create ourselves,” says Mike. Solar generation, battery storage and the electric machinery allow the orchard to use its own power before exporting surplus electricity to the national grid. For Mike, that experience demonstrated that electrification can be a business decision rather than simply an environmental one. “I came for the climate, but I stayed for the economics.” That thinking now sits behind Rewiring Aotearoa, the charity Mike helped establish and leads as chief executive. The organisation has a team of 16, spanning climate, energy, community and communications expertise, working to remove regulatory and financial barriers to electrification. Its focus is broader than encouraging people to buy electric vehicles or install solar. The organisation is working on the settings that influence how New Zealanders generate, use, store and pay for energy, while advocating for long-term, low-interest finance to make electrification more accessible. “We’re here to do something and get it done and then shut down. We’re going to be here for a short time, we’re going to get a job done, we’re going to change the settings and then we’re going to go do something else,” Mike says. The organisation is taking that message directly to communities, with Mike recently spending 12 days travelling around New Zealand. Rewiring Aotearoa has supported 30 to 40 events, about 35 volunteer community groups, and eight national expos, alongside its Electrified Queenstown initiative. For Mike, the opportunity is ultimately about keeping more of the money New Zealand spends on energy within the country. He points to the roughly $10 billion spent annually on fossil fuels, and argues that replacing imported energy with locally generated electricity could strengthen the economy. The work has brought wider recognition, with Mike a finalist in the 2026 New Zealand Leadership Awards. The recognition came as a surprise, but he sees awards as secondary to the work itself. “Awards are in a way a by-product of doing something really well.” With Rewiring Aotearoa, Mike is seeking further significant philanthropic funding to continue its work, while Forest Lodge remains the practical example behind the message. For him, the two roles are closely connected: one demonstrates what electrification can do on a working farm; the other is focused on making it easier for others to do the same. Specialising in ... • Electric motor controls installation & repairs • Electronic Innovations • Electrical design & installations • Industrial Process & control | 4 McBride Crescent, Cromwell | 027 245 6472 03 445 1139
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