5. New technologies#
New technologies are based on proven commercially available technology (TRL 7 and above) that have been, or will be, installed and commissioned in New Zealand through initiatives such as EECA’s technology demonstration fund and the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) and haven’t been included in TIMES 3.0 existing technology. This list will be reviewed regularly to ensure that all commercially available new technologies are considered in TIMES.
New technologies that will be considered in TIMES 3.0 are listed in Table 45.
Fuel |
Technology |
Use |
Lifetime (years) |
Energy Efficiency |
Capital Cost (NZD/kW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Electricity |
Steam Generating Heat Pumps |
Intermediate Heat (100-300°C), Process Requirements |
15 |
2.3 |
2,078 |
Electricity |
Internal Combustion Engine (Land Transport) – Battery Electric |
Motive Power, Mobile |
15.5 |
0.55 |
5,867[1] |
Electricity |
Internal Combustion Engine (Land Transport) – Plug-in Hybrid |
Motive Power, Mobile |
15.5 |
0.28 |
1,635 |
Electricity |
Internal Combustion Engine (Land Transport) - Hydrogen |
Motive Power, Mobile |
15.5 |
0.28 |
7,335[2] |
Note the values provided above are preliminary and based on limited industry knowledge/sources. These will be updated as better source information is obtained. The values shown above are normalised to 2023 NZD/kW using the PriceBaseYear field in the input assumptions. Electrical upgrade costs are excluded from the electric boiler and industrial heat pump capital costs reported here because those costs are represented elsewhere in TIMES. See the electricity documentation for more details on network upgrade costs.
Steam generating heat pumps: this technology typically requires waste heat, so we assume they can be deployed at industrial sites with existing process heat needs above 100°C, i.e. where waste heat is likely to already be available. An 80°C temperature lift is assumed, yielding a Coefficient of Performance (COP), or energy efficiency, of 2.3. The capital cost assumption has been reduced by 15% relative to the underlying plant estimate to remove electrical upgrade costs that are represented elsewhere in the model. The input assumption is currently stored as NZD 2,125/kW in 2026 prices, which normalises to NZD 2,078/kW in 2023 prices for modelling. The 2050 capital cost input of NZD 1,870/kW likewise normalises to NZD 1,828/kW in 2023 prices.
Low temperature heatpumps: These do not strictly count as “new technology”, as they exist in the historical data. However, we note that they do not exist in all industrial subsectors in EEUD data. By default, TIMES subsectors can only make use of existing technologies identified within the subsector, or any new technologies assigned to the subsector. This means that the model by default cannot install heatpumps in sectors where they are not already found. We assume this is an unlikely constraint, so instead allow low temperature heatpumps to be built in all industrial subsectors. These use the same cost and efficiency parameters as the existing technology assumptions, including the 15% reduction applied to capital costs to remove electrical upgrade costs that are represented elsewhere in the model. We apply this method to both low temperature process heat and low temperature space heating heatpumps.