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.