What's coming next for power, travel and connection in Aotearoa
TheFuture looks at emerging technology for energy, transport and communications, and asks a plain question of each idea: did it arrive, and what does it mean for an ordinary New Zealand home?
Latest
-
Transport
Air cars 2007–2016: CityCATs, AirPods and the production that never came
A look back at the decade when cars running on compressed air were shown at motor shows, promised for showrooms and covered by news outlets worldwide, and at why the electric car overtook them.
-
Energy
Distributed generation comes home: rooftop solar and batteries in NZ
Twenty years ago, generating power where it is used was a futurist's idea. Now it is a roof job. What to know before panels and a battery go on a New Zealand house, starting with the roof itself.
-
Heat pumps: the emerging technology that quietly arrived
While the air car and the city-wide mesh network stalled, a box on the outside wall changed how New Zealand homes keep warm. How heat pumps work, what the rental rules say, and how to get the most from one.
-
Transport
MDI's active chamber: how the compressed-air engine was meant to work
A fresh explainer on the French air engine that drew worldwide attention in the 2000s: what the active chamber did, why 300-bar air holds so little energy, and why the cars never reached volume production.
-
Peak Oil
Peak oil, twenty years on: what the 2007 warnings got right and wrong
In the late 2000s, peak oil looked like the defining energy problem of the century. Here is how those warnings have aged, and what they mean for a New Zealand household now.
-
Energy
Smart grids vs "intelligent power networks": what actually reached NZ homes
The 2000s promised a self-organising grid of small generators and clever devices. What arrived was smart meters, time-of-use prices, controllable hot water and smart EV chargers. That is less glamorous, but genuinely useful.
-
Communications
Wireless mesh, then and now: from city-wide mesh dreams to whole-home Wi-Fi
In the 2000s, mesh radio networks were going to bring broadband to whole towns. Fibre did that job instead, and mesh quietly moved indoors. Here is what changed and how to get good Wi-Fi in a New Zealand home.