Nine To Noon for Monday 11 April 2016

09:05 News and current affairs

09:20 Can solar energy power a home all year round? 

A group of residents from Great Barrier Island who live entirely off the grid, say solar energy can give households year-round power, as long as you have enough photovoltaic panels on your roof. 

Two weeks ago the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment endorsed a report which said the uptake of solar energy by households will increase carbon emissions from the electricity sector. It said this was because solar power is disproportionately generated during the summer months, while New Zealand's electricity needs are greatest in winter - so if more households use solar panels, this would replace renewable alternatives that would be more available in the winter months, resulting in a greater reliance on fossil fuel based electricity generation. 

Great Barrier island, in the outer Hauraki Gulf, has a population of 950, and has never been connected to the grid. 85 percent of residents use solar energy and most have back up generators. 

Orla Cumisky is the organiser of the island’s Off the Grid event being held next month - where experts and locals offer advice to those wanting to live off the grid. She also powers her home solely with solar energy all year round. 

09:45 South America correspondent Joel Richards

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is one step closer to impeachment. Argentina's president is under investigation following revelations in the Panama Papers and Uruguay is also extensively named in the papers, particularly in relation to its dealings with FIFA.

10:05  Nicola Bendetti & Leonard Elschenbroich

Violinist Nicola Benedetti made history in Britain as an eight year old by becoming the youngest person to lead the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain.  Eight years later, at age 16, she won the 2004 BBC Young Musician of the Year Award, leading to a lucrative six-album deal from Universal Music that same year. She's a passionate advocate for music education and getting children to learn instruments. Now just 28, she's in New Zealand for a series of concerts with the NZSO, playing Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello along with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.
The two met as young people at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and are now life partners as well as musical partners.

10:35 Book review: Love as a Stranger by Owen Marshall

Reviewed by Sonja de Friez, published by Penguin Random House 

10:45 The Reading Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings by Tina Makereti, Ep.5.

11:05 Political commentators Stephen Mills and Rob Hosking

11:30 Lao Food with Dai Phonevilay and Dal Philavong 

Close friends Dai Phonevilay and Dal Philavong wanted to share their passion for Lao cooking and culture. After appearing on My Kitchen Rules, they have started their own business selling Lao marinades and sauces -  Taste Lao. The Wellington pair also run cooking classes and catering and have big plans for the future.

Recipe: Larb

11:45  Kennedy Warne: History's show-and-tell at the new Waitangi Museum

Kennedy Warne recently visited Te Kongahu with a university lecturer who specialises in how colonial history is told and represented, and a Ngapuhi writer/historian/lecturer and museum specialist