SwitchedOn Australia

Shoalhaven air conditioning installer Travis Harpley has taken his enthusiasm for electrification well beyond the rooftop, building a solar-powered boat to travel down the Murray River and an electric ride-on mower that police clocked at 73 kilometres an hour. For our occasional series, How I electrified, he shares his journey from early solar adopter to installing batteries at his home and busine...

The world’s largest battery-electric ship, built in Tasmania, has begun carrying passengers and vehicles between Argentina and Uruguay. To mark the milestone, SwitchedOn Australia revisits our conversation with Incat founder and chairman Robert Clifford, recorded onboard the China Zorrilla before it left Hobart. At the time, the ferry was stuck in the Derwent River, waiting for a heavy-lift vessel...

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 untappe...

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 majo...

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...

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 mi...

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 lar...

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 mo...

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 a...

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 co...

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...

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...

Electrifying an apartment building can be complicated, but sometimes the biggest barrier is simply getting started. Ash Sayers, Director at Keystone, a Melbourne strata management company, explains why residents and owners corporations often assume solar, batteries and EV chargers will be too difficult to install, or won’t be approved. This can leave potentially viable projects stuck in the too-ha...

Rowan Hearne was initially told he couldn’t install a hot water heat pump in his 1980s Canberra apartment. Instead of accepting "no," he worked with installers, engineers and his strata manager to find practical solutions that allowed him to replace gas hot water with a heat pump, improve insulation and install efficient heating and cooling. Accessing the ACT's Sustainable Household Scheme, he com...

After eight years, Melbourne community group Village Power is finally about to switch on its long-awaited community battery. But the project that emerged is very different from the one its volunteers originally set out to build. Village Power president Graeme Martin explains why the journey became a game of snakes and ladders, with regulatory, commercial and practical hurdles forcing the group to...

Australian households may be feeling slightly less pressure paying their energy bills, but the latest Consumer Energy Report Card from Energy Consumers Australia shows the cost of electricity remains a major concern. The ECA’s Executive Manager of Analysis and Advocacy, Ashley Bradshaw, explains why 62% of households are still cutting back on heating and cooling to save money, despite a small impr...

Virtual power plants have been talked about for years as a crucial part of Australia's clean energy future. But a recent ACCC Electricity Inquiry found fewer than one in four battery owners have signed up to a VPP, despite participants typically paying lower electricity bills than households with solar and batteries alone. So what's holding Australians back? Robbie Campbell, CEO of Plico, Australi...

For years we've been told that widespread electrification could overwhelm Australia's electricity networks. But midway through the Electrify 2515 trial, Endeavour Energy, the project’s network distributor, says the biggest influence on the grid is customer behaviour – when and how customers use their electrical appliances. General Manager of Future Grid and Asset Management Colin Crisafulli explai...

The Federal Government's new Solar Sharer scheme promises households in New South Wales, South Australia and south-east Queensland three hours of free electricity every day, but who will actually benefit? Ronald Brakels from Solar Quotes explains why the policy has been introduced to soak up Australia's growing surplus of midday solar generation and reduce pressure on the evening electricity peak....

Australia's rooftop solar and battery boom has largely bypassed the millions of people who live in apartments, creating a growing energy divide between homeowners and everyone else. Allume Energy co-founder and CEO Cameron Knox explains the technical, legal and governance barriers that have kept apartment residents locked out of clean energy, and the innovations now helping to overcome them. He di...

Swimming pools don’t usually feature in discussions about household electrification, yet Australia's 1.3 million pool pumps consume a surprisingly large amount of electricity and can make up nearly 20% of a household’s electricity bill. Together Energy co-founder Patrick Michel discusses why pool pumps have been an overlooked energy efficiency opportunity and how pool chemistry has long prevented...

A cold, draughty Melbourne terrace became the focus of a 25-year effort to improve comfort, cut emissions and reduce energy bills through a series of carefully planned upgrades. Starting with insulation, double glazing and draught-proofing long before electrification entered the mainstream, Anna Molan and Michael Fogarty's journey reflects the changing realities of Australia's energy transition. T...

Right now, the world’s largest fully battery-electric ship sits in Hobart’s Derwent River, waiting to be put into service. The 130-metre China Zorrilla, built by Tasmanian shipbuilder Incat, will carry more than 2,000 passengers and 225 vehicles between Argentina and Uruguay entirely on battery power. Four battery rooms on board house more than 5,000 lithium-ion battery units, part of what is beli...

Australia’s energy system is increasingly relying on households. With more than four million homes now sporting rooftop solar, and batteries, EVs and smart appliances rapidly growing, consumer energy resources are becoming central to how the grid operates. But there’s a problem emerging beneath this transformation - many of these devices still can’t properly communicate with each other. Dani Alexa...

Ahead of Sustainable House Day, Helen Oakey, CEO from Renew explains how Australians are retrofitting, electrifying and rethinking the places they live. What began more than 40 years ago as a niche showcase for solar homes has evolved into a nationwide snapshot of the energy transition playing out in real houses, apartments and renovations around the country. With ageing housing stock leaving many...