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Recent key developments in New Zealand
It would appear international investor groups aren’t just looking to invest in New Zealand manufacturing by buying local businesses, but in fact they’ve begun to build some new factories right here on Canterbury soil. An insider tip was given to MAKE│NZ about a new building going up in Wigram that will eventually be populated by workers belonging to a certain company known to share it’s name with that of a large rainforest. I’m sure you can connect the dots.
Instead of a fulfilment centre, something we could expect to see given the numerous locations in Australia, we’ll be seeing a manufacturing and repair based depot servicing a new offering. New Zealand has historically been a great place to try out new innovations without alerting the world stage, we proved ourselves a fantastic guinea pig at the inception of the Eftpos system. And once again we find ourselves at the forefront of internation innovation.
In competition with the likes of Lime and Ario scooters, we’ll soon be seeing Prime Platforms on our streets.
These new transportation assistants will operate much the same as the others available on the market. Their point of difference in an already fairly saturated market? “Dignity”. The new head of Prime Platforms states that, “Scooters work well for those who don’t mind continuing to show an air of youth, but those looking to appear more dignified, Prime Platform is the prime option. From your car to your office, meeting to meeting, the Prime Platform will allow you to travel while standing straight and elegant.”
Considering the fate of many a Lime scooter when first introduced to New Zealand, environmental groups are already concerned the effects these new e-vehicles will have on our water-ways once they’re inevitably thrown in the river.
Will the Prime Platform succeed and become our new way of transport, or will it be a novelty flash in the pan? We can’t say for sure, but we can expect to seem them on our streets April 31st 2025.
Recent key developments in the World
It would be fair to say the majority of our newsletters have included a focus on energy and it’s energy security. Well this issue is no different, but it does have a slightly more positive piece of news.
Traditionally our issue isn’t necessarily the generation of electricity- water, wind, coal, solar, nuclear, and so on- but with the storing of electricity. Large and stable batteries are tricky, they’re costly to make and dangerous to dispose of once we can no longer use them.
A new approach has come from Jesper Béland, a PHD student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Jesper believes he may have come up with a new approach to not only generate, but also store and release electricity when it’s wanted. The method has received a great deal of backlash given it’s ethical tightrope-walking, but Jesper argues that angle has already been corrected. “The love it, they’ll be out there anyway. The parents love how much quieter it makes home life and the children love getting the chance to run wild and letting out all their sugar induced energy.” Said Jesper when explaining his idea to start building playground in busy town centres with his soon to be patented “Energy-Gathering” floor panels. “By harnessing the unbound and near-constantly energy of children we can have a consistent energy source that places little to no impact on the environment while being an extremely cheap given it’s self-regenerating power. We give them a chance to play on the playground, let them go wild running and playing, and while tiring themselves out that drained energy goes straight into my Energy-Gathering panels, which can then be fed directly into power stations nearby to be redistributed as desired to the grid.”
According to Jesper, the only major drawback will be in peak summer and winter in more extreme climates. Understandably, children are less willing to exercise when dealing with sweltering heat or freezing cold- or at the very least their parents are unwilling to allow them to be exposed to the harsh elements. His research will continue on into how best to install his Energy-Gathering plates and how to best weather protect children.
It’s certainly an idea for the PHD student to be so passionate about, but there’s something a touch dystopian to it. We’ll just have to keep our eyes on a swivel- perhaps this could be the answer to New Zealands’ need for consistent and reliable power? Maybe this will be another guinea pig opportunity for New Zealand playgrounds.
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