SwitchedOn Australia

Australian businesses could substantially cut their heating bills and emissions by replacing gas boilers with efficient electric heat pumps, but the transition remains slow and uneven. Jarrod Leak, CEO of the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, explains how aquatic centres, commercial laundries and food processors are making the switch, while hospitals and aged care offer enormous untapped potential. He outlines how upfront costs, expensive electricity connections and a shortage of refrigeration mechanics can stall worthwhile projects. Thermal storage, heat recovery and electricity tariffs that reward flexible demand could also improve the economics while making better use of the existing grid. And sustained government support and clear targets would give businesses the confidence to hire and train the tradespeople needed to accelerate the switch.

Melbourne-based Allume Energy has taken out top honours at the Australian Good Design Awards, becoming the first company to be awarded both the prestigious Good Design Award of the Year and the Sustainability Award for its innovative SolShare technology. While millions of Australian households are reaping the benefits of rooftop solar, apartment residents have largely been left behind, facing major barriers including limited roof space, complex strata arrangements and the difficulty of sharing solar electricity between individual homes. SolShare tackles these challenges by allowing multiple apartments to share electricity generated by a single rooftop solar system, without sacrificing their individual meters or choice of electricity retailer. Allume is now extending the technology to incorporate batteries, potentially delivering even greater savings and opening up new possibilities for shared renewable energy. In this episode from the archives Allume co-founder and CEO Cameron Knox explains how the technology works, the challenges of bringing solar to apartment buildings, and why apartments could become leaders rather than laggards in Australia's clean energy transition.

Australia is spending billions encouraging households to electrify, but are we building an industry capable of delivering the transition? Trent Jones, founder of Melbourne-based All Electric Homes, warns that Australia faces a serious shortage of skilled tradespeople, and the traditional trade business models aren't equipped to deliver complex, whole-home electrification at scale. He explains why fragmented trades, complicated rebates and short-term operators risk undermining installation quality, consumer confidence and the viability of legitimate small businesses. And he argues we need to invest as much effort in transforming the workforce and businesses delivering electrification as we do in stimulating consumer demand. Drawing on his experience with Hume City Council's home energy upgrades program, Trent explores how trusted local partnerships can help households navigate electrification.

Nearly 750 million people around the world still live without reliable electricity, limiting access to healthcare, education and economic opportunity. Global Citizen co-founder Michael Sheldrick explains why the international anti-poverty movement is now putting clean electricity at the centre of its mission. Ahead of the Global Citizen NOW summit in Perth, he discusses plans to help power four million homes, and how governments, development banks, philanthropists and businesses can turn financial pledges into projects on the ground. Sheldrick also examines Western Australia’s opportunity to build new industries around renewable energy and green iron, and why the coal town of Collie could become an important test of whether a just transition can deliver secure, skilled jobs before the old industries disappear.

You can register for the Global Citizen Now summit in Perth here: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/now/perth/

Four years ago, a handful of Canberra volunteers set out to prove that entire communities could move from gas and petrol to efficient electric homes and transport. Their campaign has now become Go Electric, a major ARENA-backed pilot helping up to 1,000 households electrify through a coordinated one-stop service. Following in the footsteps of Electrify 2515 in the Illawarra, but operating on a larger scale, the project will test whether finance, trades, technology and customer support can be brought together in a model that can be replicated elsewhere. It will also tackle difficult questions about grid capacity, renters and the use of 200 electric vehicles as batteries for homes and the wider energy system. Electrify Canberra co-founder Sarah Reid explains how community trust and persistent advocacy turned an ambitious volunteer campaign into a real-world demonstration.

As NSW considers minimum energy-efficiency standards for rental homes, Renew has modelled what different levels of upgrades would mean for tenants’ comfort and power bills. Its research found that even basic improvements can make homes healthier, but may increase bills when renters begin using newly installed heating and cooling. At the other extreme, an “excellent” retrofit costs substantially more while delivering only modest additional savings. A Goldilocks package, that combines insulation, shading, efficient heating and cooling, heat-pump hot water and rooftop solar, could cut energy bills by between two-thirds and three-quarters. Renew CEO Helen Oakey discusses what NSW’s standards should require, how the work should be financed, and why incentives alone are not enough.

Australia is a world leader in rooftop solar and home batteries are booming. But electricity still only accounts for around 21 per cent of the energy we consume. So why are we still burning so much gas, petrol and diesel when renewable electricity is increasingly cheap and abundant? More than 30 organisations have joined forces to launch Electrify Australia, pushing to accelerate electrification across homes, businesses, transport, farms and industry. But even when the economics stack up, grid connection delays, outdated regulation, conflicting government policies and entrenched interests can stand in the way, while renters, apartment dwellers and lower-income households risk being left behind. Energy Efficiency Council policy head Jeremy Sung explains what’s holding Australia back and what needs to change to turn our renewable energy success into an electrified economy.

Tim Ryan argues Australia is trying to build a 21st-century, consumer-led electricity system while preserving retailers as compulsory ‘middlemen.’ But retailers are businesses that have little incentive to help households use less electricity or pay less for it. And innovations such as Solar Sharer, VPPs and dynamic network tariffs, have just given retailers and aggregators new opportunities to control or profit from household energy. His alternative is the Consumers’ Grid where consumers and their smart technology have a more direct relationship with electricity networks, that would bypass retailers so they can better respond when electricity is cheap and available. Batteries and EVs can then help households save money first, while collectively soaking up excess solar, reducing peaks and making better use of the grid. Ryan is the consumer representative on the Federal government’s Data Standards Advisory Committee and his proposition is simple - design the system around consumer savings, and the benefits will flow through to everyone.

Three hours of free electricity sounds like a great deal, but Solar Sharer could leave some households paying more. Energy Futures Network director and electrical engineer, Ty Christopher argues a good policy has been undermined by the way it was designed and regulated. He says higher daily supply charges and higher electricity prices outside the free period mean some households may need to shift hundreds of dollars’ worth of energy use just to break even. Christopher argues the Australian Energy Regulator gave too much weight to “retailer viability” and not enough to the original goal of cutting consumers’ bills. He explains what went wrong, who might still benefit from Solar Sharer, and why consumers need to do the numbers very carefully before signing up.

As Australia moves toward an all-electric future, a key question looms: how can we meet the surge in electricity demand that will be needed when we all drive electric vehicles, heat our hot water with electricity, cook with induction stoves and heat and cool our homes with reverse cycle air conditioners? Modelling from the Australian National university, using the ACT as a case study, suggests the answer lies not in building more infrastructure but shifting when we use power. By charging electric vehicles and heating water during the day, when solar energy is plentiful and network demand is low, we could electrify our homes and transport without overloading the system. The lead researcher on the ANU study was Dr Bjorn Sturmberg, who now works with AEMO’s Future Energy Systems team.