kia ora,

Welcome to our August Newsletter. Energise Ōtaki have had an exciting few months welcoming three new staff members who we will introduce below, along with some great progress on our Solar Farm project.

We hope that you are holding up well under the circumstances and we see you at one of our events shortly!

solar farm project update

A 23kWp system is now installed at Otaki College and the solar panels for the larger system (106.8kWp) have been installed adjacent to the Otaki Wastewater Treatment Plant (photo above) and expected to be turned on in the next few weeks.

The generated power will be used at the College and to run the Council's wastewater treatment process, and the proceeds from the electricity sold will be put into the Energise Ōtaki Community Investment Fund, supporting energy and other projects in the town. This solar farm is being built with funding support of Wellington Community Trust and in partnership with Kāpiti Coast District Council and Otaki College.

upcoming events

NEXT PUBLIC MEETING

When: Wed 9 September, 6-8pm
Where: Dr. Gertrude Atmore Supper Room, Corner Aotaki and Main Streets

Sophie Handford will be our guest speaker, as well as having project updates and community discussion. Sophie Handford is a Councillor at KCDC, NZ’s youngest elected Councillor and was the national coordinator of the School Strikes 4 Climate.

COMMUNITY EXPO

When: Sat 5 September, 10am-1pm
Where: Memorial Hall on Main Street

Energise Ōtaki will have a stall at the Community Expo, which showcases local groups, clubs and activities. It's a great event where you can get to know Ōtaki better. We look forward to seeing you there!

other news

MAIN ST OFFICE

Our office space at 7 Main St, Ōtaki is open again after its Covid-19 closure. Please feel free to drop in any time between 10am and 2pm on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

NEW STAFF

Barb Nixon Mackay - Coordinator
Barb has enjoyed living on the Kāpiti Coast for much of her life. She and her partner have two adult children. Barb's background is in business administration and project management and recently, Environmental studies. As well as her Coordinator role for us, she has governance roles in other local groups. She strongly believes in our responsibility to look after the Earth for future generations.

Kaylie Potaka - Communications and Projects Officer
Kaylie studied Environmental Studies and Education and also works as an IT administrator and with a youth science programme. She moved to Ōtaki recently and is excited to get involved more with the community through her communications role. She is looking forward to being involved in local, practical projects that are actively working towards a more sustainable world.

Kirsty Doyle - Events Planning and Support
Kirsty is looking forward to helping Energise Ōtaki plan events to showcase the amazing work that they are doing. She is actively involved in our community working at Ōtaki College as the Director of Sport. She has been involved with the Ōtaki Surf Lifesaving Club for many years and is the Project Director for the Ōtaki Kite Festival.

REGEN: Integrated Waste Management

This talk by Dr Gael Ferguson of local company NuFuels was the special topic of our July public meeting. NuFuels undertook a project, funded by KCDC, to investigate how an integrated energy recovery from waste system would work in the Ōtaki district, using pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion technologies. This has the potential to remove a tonne of biosolids, a tonne of tyres, 12 tonnes of plastic and 7 tonnes of food waste from our landfill. You can read more about the talk on our website.