Ross Garnaut’s renewable road

Economist Ross Garnaut has many descriptions attached to his name – Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, former economic adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Ambassador to China, author – but there’s one label you may not have heard: “An old dog for a hard road”.

That’s how he described himself in his covering letter when submitting to state premiers and the then federal Labour government his seminal 2008 report, the Garnaut Climate Change Review.

“I was already an old dog then,” the now 76-year-old climate policy veteran told Rewired in an extended podcast interview for the final episode of Season 4.

“I had no idea that I’d still be on the road 13 years later, but once you realise how important this issue is, the world dealing with climate change Australia, being part of that global effort. it won’t let you go,” he said.

The 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review, updated in 2011, examined the impact of climate change on the Australian economy.

The introduction began with a challenge: “Australia will need to play its full proportionate part in global action.”

The review also identified a gap in Australian research capacity, especially early-stage research, and made the case for: “A specialist research body related to low-emission technology, to elevate, coordinate and target Australia’s effort in this field.” Garnaut has since identified the establishment of ARENA as a successful outcome of that call.

Awareness

The 2008 review was a culmination of 17 months’ work, but Ross Garnaut’s climate change journey began many years earlier.

He remembers first being made aware of the issue as economic adviser to Bob Hawke’s first administration from 1983 to 1985.

“We had a science minister who was actually the first science minister in the world to be talking in a parliament about how serious this issue was. That was Barry Jones,“ he told Rewired.

“And so the science minister’s concern for climate change was the beginning of my awareness,” he said.

Garnaut describes the next two decades as being a period of “low-burn awareness” as he watched with interest developments at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

“I followed that as an interested bystander. Obviously, these issues were very important for economic development. How we handled them was going to be very important,” he said.

Action

Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century and an update to the Garnaut Review, published in 2011, which included modelling showing the immediate costs of climate change action would be relatively high, while the benefits, though huge, may not materialise for 30 or 40 years.

At the time, Garnaut acknowledged that would be a hard sell.

But he told a committee meeting with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard present: “If you use a discount rate of around 7%, which is the sort of discount rate the equity markets tend to apply, then you would not do anything about climate change, even if you knew with a high degree of certainty that not dealing with it would lead to the extinction of our species in 100 years time.”

“And the Prime Minister grinned and said, ‘Well, you’ve got us there in a rush. We’re all against the extinction of our species’.”

“But by about 2015, it was evident to me that the reduction in costs were transformational, and that that was going to have a very big effect on the opportunity that Australia had as a supplier of zero emissions goods into a zero emissions world.”

Next steps

That change, the reduction in the costs of renewable energy generation and storage, has left Garnaut more optimistic about the future. He now emphasises the opportunities for Australia in a renewable energy-dominated world.

In 2019, Garnaut wrote his influential book Superpower: Australia’s Low Carbon Opportunity that laid out the challenge and the opportunity to export clean energy to other countries in Asia and Europe, to decarbonise our hard to abate industries and to create new industries based on hydrogen and low emission metals and minerals.

“It started to become clear to me that if we did it right, the economic benefits to my country were going to be immense. That us making use of that opportunity would make a big contribution to the global decarbonisation effort,” he said.

“[And] if we got it right, we could open up a prosperous future for our children and grandchildren.

“And with seven grandchildren between the ages of 10 and 17, one’s mind comes to think about the world that they will be living [in].”

Listen to the whole interview with Professor Garnaut in the final episode of Season 4 of Rewired.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Rewired: Game-changing electrolysers with Hysata’s Paul Barrett

Early in 2022, Australian technology company Hysata announced they had developed a groundbreaking hydrogen electrolyser.

The news made a splash, offering a pathway for emissions free hydrogen to compete with methods of production that rely on fossil fuels.

Hysata’s announcement represents an important step towards unlocking new ways to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry and long distance transport.

“Hysata has developed a new category of electrolyser that really transforms the economics of green hydrogen production.”

Underpinning the breakthrough is a highly efficient design that eliminates almost all of the electrical resistance, excess heat and cooling that has held other electrolysers back.

Bringing research to market

The system has been informed by researchers at the University of Wollongong and Monash University, who received support from ARENA.

“Electrolysers have been around for over 100 years. It’s a pretty simple kind of high school level electrochemistry experiment, you have water and two electrodes, you run some potential across it, and you can split water pretty easily into hydrogen and oxygen.”

Australia’s hydrogen opportunity is significant. As the global energy transition sees lower demand for Australian coal and gas, hydrogen offers a way to convert our wind and solar power into an exportable product.

A green hydrogen industry could also contribute to a revival in Australian manufacturing, opening an emissions free pathway to produce steel, fertilisers and other products that today fossil fuels.

“So if we look towards 2050 and net zero, we’ve got to electrify everything we can right. So there’s no argument around electric electrification and deploying massive amounts of renewables and storage, but for hard-to-abate industries, electrification doesn’t do it.”

While the technology underpinning electrolysis isn’t new, it has been unable to compete on cost with alternative methods of hydrogen production that rely on coal and gas. To improve the equation, ARENA has committed more than $100 million to three, large-scale electrolyser deployments, and to projects demonstrating hydrogen use in passenger vehicles, heavy transport and low emission metal production.

These projects aim to prove the potential of hydrogen at all points of the supply chain, from production, compression, storage, transportation and end use.

Cheap electricity key

Ongoing reductions in the price of wind and solar power will help to bring down the cost of renewable hydrogen, but Barrett is confident that the efficiency gains from their electrolyser design will deliver significant cost reductions.

Announcing the breakthrough earlier in the year, he said their cell design boosts efficiency from approximately 75 per cent to more than 95 per cent. Together with falling energy input costs and lower capital costs for hardware, we could be close to achieving the $2 per kilogram target.

The electrolysers are already working at scale at Hysata’s facility, with commercial deployments expected to be operational by 2025.

“Abundant solar and wind resources are in many cases developed and could be packaged up with electrolysers to make hydrogen for energy exports.”

Responding to the announcement, ARENA Director Alex McIntosh welcomed Hysata’s achievement.

“The efficiency of Hysata’s electrolyser is markedly higher than current market technologies, which enables hydrogen to be produced more efficiently and therefore puts hydrogen commerciality within reach,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh explained the costs of electricity still accounts for a large proportion of hydrogen production costs, so more work will be needed to bring down the cost of energy generation to unlock the vision for a renewable hydrogen industry.

“Hysata’s technology certainly is game changing and helps to commercialise hydrogen, but there is work ahead to achieve cost reductions across the entire hydrogen supply chain and to unlock hydrogen’s full potential,” she said.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Stockpiling solar power in suburban batteries

This week on ARENA’s podcast Rewired, we speak to Dr Marnie Shaw from the Australian National University about a new wave of community energy projects.

Unlike the small household batteries that are installed behind the meter to soak up rooftop solar power, community batteries can be installed across the distribution network to benefit all households.

“These neighbourhood batteries are almost acting as if they’re little mini power generation stations”

The batteries can be charged from rooftop solar exports during sunny periods, helping to reduce the impact of gluts of electricity and allowing all electricity customers to benefit from lower bills and a larger share of renewable energy.

The equity of the electricity system is a growing concern, with the gap widening between households that can afford to buy solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other customer-owned assets that deliver significant savings over time, and those that cannot.

More storage needed

Abundant, low cost solar and wind power is helping to reduce energy prices, but that renewable electricity is inherently variable.

Providing a steady, dependable supply of electricity day and night requires a lot of storage, which is being delivered in a number of ways.

At a grid scale, pumped hydro energy storage projects like Snowy 2.0 will act like a giant battery by pumping water uphill to elevated reservoirs when electricity demand and prices are low, then releasing it to produce electricity when demand rises.

Once complete, Snowy 2.0 will be able to store 2,000 MW of capacity for up to 175 hours, without the need to replenish the elevated water storages.

The massive pumped hydro projects like Snowy 2.0 and Genex Kidston in Queensland under development will be paired with grid scale batteries like the Hornsdale Power Reserve that has a capacity of 150 MW / 194 MWh. That’s roughly enough power to run 30,000 homes for eight hours, while also delivering grid services that help to smooth the supply of electricity and reduce power bills. But it still won’t be enough.

“We need to hugely increase the amount of energy storage that we have integrated into the grid.”

AEMO predicts that 45 GW / 620 GWh (45,000 MW, 620,000 MWh) of energy storage will be needed by 2050, saying “batteries, hydro or viable alternative storage of up to eight hours’ depth to manage daily variations in the fast-growing solar and wind output.”

Community approach

Dr Shaw explains that community scale energy storage could have a big impact on the way the network operates, bridging the gap between existing household and grid sized batteries.

She expects that most would be sized in the range from “tens to hundreds of kilowatts in size” and be located in public spaces around our neighborhoods.

“They look like something like a small shipping container, that will sit in some green space in your suburb.”

United Energy is currently trialing one approach to community energy storage in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs, installing 40 small batteries up power poles on suburban streets. The batteries aim to charge during the day from solar exports to help manage the evening spike in demand for electricity.

If successful, this project could provide a blueprint for networks to follow in areas of the network with large numbers of rooftop solar installations, where distribution networks are stretched by large amounts of energy flowing into the grid during sunny periods.

Community battery projects like this also provide more control for networks than behind-the-meter battery systems, which can contribute to the broader grid through virtual power plants, but typically prioritise the needs of individual households over the grid.

“Household batteries, they’re sort of an option for people who have their own house, who can afford that upfront cost.”

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

5B Maverick robots set to transform solar

This week Kuepper-Russell joins us on ARENA’s Rewired podcast to explain how 5B’s unique approach is making solar faster to deploy and more affordable.

Her solar journey started in childhood, inspired by a toy car that was powered by sunlight without the need for batteries.

As a child of mathematicians, her curiosity was encouraged and developed into a love for science.

“We would spend the holidays trying to calculate how many litres of water are in the ocean and you know, stuff like that… I think I was five when my dad first tried to explain, like the theory of relativity.”

This led Kuepper-Russell to the University of New South Wales’ School of Photovoltaics & Renewable Energy Engineering, where the late Professor Stuart Wenham inspired her with a vision for solar to improve access to energy and tackle climate change.

Undergraduate studies were followed by a PhD with a focus on printing solar cells, all with an eye to manufacturing low cost solar cells in developing countries.

In 2020, after a decade with management consultants Bain and Company, Kuepper-Russell joined Sydney solar pioneers 5B to support their work to install solar faster, more efficiently and at a lower cost than existing methods.

Improving a“not terrible” status quo

5B’s hardware will underpin Sun Cable’s massive new Northern Territory solar farm in development, which will supply renewable electricity to Singapore via a 5,000km undersea interconnector.

The scale of the $30 billion project is unprecedented, with up to 28 million solar panels to be installed across a 12,000 hectare site near Tennant Creek.

Seeing an opportunity to improve on existing practices, 5B has developed the Maverick – a prefabricated solar array that can be assembled in a factory and deployed rapidly and safely in the field.

The system removes the need to package individual components, then manually install racking and fit panels on site.

“It’s quite slow. It’s quite risky. If it’s raining, it’s very difficult to do it,” she says.

ARENA is supporting the construction of a high volume manufacturing line at 5B’s Sydney headquarters that will take advantage of automation and robotics to roll out the Maverick arrays at scale.

“We like to say there’s no wet weather events in a factory,” she says.

5B expect to see a sharp reduction in the overall cost of delivering a solar farm, predicting a 35 per cent cost reduction by 2023 that will grow to 70 per cent by 2030.

5B are one of the promising and pioneering Australian solar startups seeking to turn our world-leading solar university research into real world innovation to make solar farms cheaper and faster to build.

Another is Sydney-based and ARENA-funded company SunDrive who are focussed on making solar cells more efficient and cheaper to make using copper instead of silver, and recently broke the world record for solar efficiency for the second time in a matter of months. Listen to our ReWired podcast on SunDrive from earlier this season.

This could unlock Australian Government’s stretch goal to deliver ultra low cost solar at 15 cents per watt under the latest Low Emissions Technology Statement, and ARENA’s ambitious “Solar 30 30 30” target to achieve 30 per cent solar cell efficiency and solar farms installed at 30 cents per watt by 2030.

Robots arriving

As well as prefabricating solar panels in factories, 5B are looking to automate the manufacturing process to make it faster and cheaper.

Kuepper-Russell said that the first robots will be in place by the end of the year to help achieve 5B’s goal of deploying one terrawatt of solar by 2030.

“Robots are out there that do car manufacturing, for example. So we’re not talking about inventing new robots, we’ve invented a new product.”

Acknowledging that robotics are expensive, she explained that the ARENA-supported project will provide an evidence base to inform the economic case for the prefabricated solar system.

“All the answers are there, you know, which I couldn’t say 18 years ago, when I entered the industry… But now you can you stare at the costs? And you’re like, Yeah, let’s just get this. Get it done. Yeah, let’s get the transition happening. Come on!”

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

How does a green hydrogen aircraft operate?

Founders Andrew Moore and Siobhan Lyndon joined us this week to share their vision for air travel with a green hydrogen aircraft and explain how soon we might take off in their emissions free ‘air taxi’.

Hydrogen and battery electric

Aviation today accounts for more than two per cent of global emissions, with the weight of batteries a barrier to electrifying long haul routes.

Electric motors are emerging as an option for shorter journeys, like those performed by regional carriers and air ambulances.

Moore has used his aeronautical engineering background, paired with 15 years experience in the aviation industry, to inform the design of AMSL Aero’s “Vertiia” aircraft.

READ MORE: NEW ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT CLEAR TO TAKE OFF, ALMOST…

AMSL Aero's Vertiia green hydrogen aircraft — AMSL Aero’s Vertiia green hydrogen aircraft.

It will come with the option of hydrogen fuel cell or battery electric propulsion, with hydrogen able to travel 1000 kilometres for the same weight as the battery version which can cover about 250 kilometres.

“Currently there isn’t a great replacement for jet fuel that can offer airlines the range needed to make a transition. But with advancements in batteries and green hydrogen, that equation could change quickly.“

The aircraft takes off vertically like a helicopter, using eight electric powered rotors that rotate to horizontal to allow it to fly using a pair of wings. This allows the Vertiia to take off in a small space and also allows fast and efficient cruising.

In hydrogen guise, the Vertiia can travel up to 1000kms non-stop at a speed of 300kph, which AMSL Aero say will increase over time.

“They can land and take off from roughly the size of a tennis court.”

They have built a full sized prototype, which will begin test flights in 2022.

Locally built for Australian conditions

The prototype has been built in Sydney using a combination of locally built components and Slovenian engines.

Describing the design, Moore speaks about growing up on a farm surrounded by aeroplanes that were used for agricultural processes.

“Lots of the farms around where I lived had ag strips, so it would be common to spread fertiliser using aeroplanes, and so all these farms had these ag strips, and so I’d see these planes flying around everywhere.”

They plan for the Vertiia to be in the skies within the next five to ten years, servicing busy flight routes between capital cities and providing a zero emissions alternative to helicopters for shorter flights.

They expect by then the aircraft will be able to travel at 700kph and change the way people see air transport.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Revolutionising energy with Australia’s “solar superman”

When Professor Martin Green started his solar research in the 1970s, the idea of using solar panels to power our homes was out of this world.

NASA was developing solar technology to power spacecraft and satellites, but was far too expensive and inefficient for terrestrial applications.

Half a century on, more than three million Australian homes have panels on their rooftops, combining into a force that is transforming the way we use energy.

Professor Green joined us to share his remarkable story and look to the future of energy, now that solar has officially changed the game.

“The first efficient silicon solar cell was made in 1954. And then, people got very excited about the new way of generating energy. But it was just too expensive to make them…”

Opportunity from crisis

Looking back to his early days in the industry, Professor Green tells us that solar received a shot in the arm in the 1970s as the world searched for new sources of energy in the wake of the oil crisis.

The US solar industry was fuelled by major investment under the Carter administration, but Professor Green took advantage of funding available locally to piece together a laboratory with largely second-hand equipment sourced from the US.

Using his expertise in micro electronics, together with a team of talented technicians, they took aim at the world’s solar pioneers and almost immediately began claiming records.

This helped to attract attention and funding, with the team’s competitiveness remaining a theme across the decades since. Professor Green’s Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at the University of New South Wales has held world solar efficiency records for 30 of the last 38 years, with their designs used in the vast majority of solar panels produced around the world today.

“We have held the world record at UNSW for converting sunlight to electricity, and we used a four-cell stack there. So the more you can stack, the higher the efficiency goes.”

As well as helping solar to become the cheapest way of producing electricity in history (according to the International Energy Agency), Professor Green has blazed a trail for the next wave of renewable energy pioneers.

His PhD student Dr Zhengrong Shi became the world’s first solar billionaire after setting up a solar manufacturing plant in China. Another student, Vince Allen, has gone on to shake up solar designs by using more abundant and affordable materials, already attracting heavyweight investors.

Bright future

As designs, materials and manufacturing techniques evolve to become more efficient and affordable, Professor Green doesn’t expect anything to change dramatically – at least for energy users.

“It’s probably not going to look too much different except that, you know, our electricity will still come, but it’s going to be powered by solar and wind.”

Paired with battery storage and pumped hydro, and used to make green hydrogen, he expects Australia to benefit from affordable, plentiful daytime energy before most other countries due to our world-leading solar uptake.

He sees a role for this energy to power mineral processing and produce renewable fuels to decarbonise transport, highlighting a recent finding that the geographical diversity offered by Australia’s large landmass makes us particularly well-suited to renewable energy.

He continues to be inspired by his team’s research and seeing the success of his students and is optimistic about the next wave of innovations.

“It’s still very exciting to be involved in the research, because it’s still just a horse and buggy days with the solar… you know, Nokia phone days, rather than a smartphone.”

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Cutting transport emissions with Melbourne-made electric trucks

This week on Rewired, we are joined by SEA Electric’s Bill Gillespie to discuss the growing demand for zero emissions heavy vehicles.

The company has been on a rapid rise since launching their first model in 2017. Their trucks are now in operation across some of Australia’s biggest fleets, ferrying deliveries for Woolworths, IKEA, Australia Post and DHL, and also helping local councils to reduce emissions.

Founded in Australia and now based in Los Angeles, SEA Electric is expanding into international markets, with a growing presence in the US, Europe and Asia.

“It’s gone beyond, that would be a nice thing to do for the planet…”

They offer an expanding range of models for a variety of applications, as new markets emerge for mid-sized electric trucks for ‘last mile’ deliveries, buses, garbage collection, refrigerated transport and passenger vans.

Gillespie acknowledges that electric models today cost up to three times as much to purchase as diesel powered equivalents, but says the extra costs can be recouped within five years through a combination of lower fuel and maintenance costs.

SEA Electric's tip truck in action — SEA Electric’s tip truck in action. Image: SEA Electric.

He points to IKEA, who are running three SEA Electric trucks in Sydney as part of their efforts to achieve a company-wide zero emissions target by 2030.

“Each of those trucks have done over 100,000kms, they average about 200kms per day and come back to base each night and are charged.
“If you look at DHL, UPS, Amazon, all of those companies have really aggressive plans around zero emissions deliveries.”

The delivery trucks that are in service for IKEA typically cost about $12 per day to operate, offering a lower ‘total cost of ownership’ than combustion alternatives, winning out even when environmental benefits are put aside.

Made in Melbourne

In 2017, SEA Electric received $5 million from the Clean Energy Innovation Fund; a program jointly administered by ARENA and the CEFC.

The funding supported the development of their proprietary Sea-Drive system, which they install in new rolling chassis and can also retrofit existing vehicles.

Gillespie says the fact their trucks are manufactured in Melbourne is a unique selling point.

“Yeah, I think they’re pleasantly surprised that they are made in Australia, that’s a big advantage for us right now.

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Smashing solar records with SunDrive’s Vince Allen

From humble beginnings in a garage in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, solar startup SunDrive is on a rapid rise.

This week co-founder and CEO Vince Allen joined Rewired to discuss their new world record for solar efficiency, and what it could mean for the transition to renewable energy.

Shining bright

In September SunDrive announced that they had developed the world’s most efficient silicone cell, claiming the record from China’s Longi Solar.

Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research verified that they achieved an efficiency of 25.54 per cent, lifting the record for a commercial sized solar cell from Longi’s benchmark of 25.26 per cent.

In broad terms, solar efficiency refers to the amount of sunlight able to be converted into electricity when it hits the panel.

The record is made more significant by the fact that SunDrive’s cells are manufactured with copper in the place of silver, a precious metal that is in limited supply.

“Solar cells that are mass produced today are very close to the efficiency limits. So manufacturers today are very aggressively pursuing more efficient solar cell structures.”

With the solar industry already consuming one-fifth of the world’s industrial solar, SunDrive has prioritised developing affordable and abundant alternatives.

In time, Allen expects that the breakthrough will allow them to offer a solar panel that undercuts today’s most efficient options by 20 or 30 per cent.

“Copper is 100 times cheaper per kilo. It’s 1000 times more abundant.”

The company has attracted high profile investors, led by Blackbird Ventures and Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes’ Grok investment fund. Fellow University of NSW alumnus “Sun King” Dr Zhengrong Shi, the one-time billionaire founder of SunTech, was SunDrive’s first angel investor.

Healthy rivalry

Allen studied under UNSW Professor Martin Green, the “solar superman” who leads the team of researchers that have held efficiency records for 30 of the past 38 years.

Their work has had a profound impact on the solar industry, with the UNSW-developed Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell estimated to account for 80 per cent of global solar manufacturing capacity — a share UNSW says continues to grow.

For now, SunDrive is planning how they will deliver their new technology to the market. Allen explains that they will prioritise Australia and buck the trend by looking to manufacture their cells locally.

They are targeting the residential segment, seeing an opportunity to make the most efficient use of limited roof space so households can generate enough energy to power their homes, electric cars and charge batteries.

“The more efficient your panels are, the less number of panels you need to get to a certain system size. And the less panels you need, the less wiring, the less mounting, the less installation, less transportation… So a small efficiency increase can actually have a cascading effect in terms of the final cost.”

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Podcast: Darren Miller’s vision for a prosperous renewable future

This week ARENA launched refreshed priorities to guide the allocation of funding, for the first time including a focus on decarbonising aluminium and steel supply chains.

NEW – Darren Miller on the future of hydrogen

The plan describes immense opportunities. Today, alumina refining alone accounts for approximately one-quarter of Australia’s scope 1 manufacturing emissions, but renewable energy and more efficient processes offers a way to transform the industry into a sustainable, jobs-rich powerhouse.

The new investment plan continues ARENA’s effort to commercialise new hydrogen technologies and adds a focus on developing new ultra low cost solar technologies.

Launching the plan, Darren Miller said that investment decisions made today will be key to transforming our energy system and achieving net zero emissions.

In our conversation, he explains how the agency sees opportunities in low emissions metal production, underpinned by the cheapest electricity the world has ever seen.

“The International Energy Agency came out recently and said solar is the cheapest form of electricity generation ever. So there you go. And it’s not over yet, we’ve still got many more innovations and cost reduction cycles to go.”

He sees the transformation as having two clear benefits. Firstly, a way to decarbonise some of Australia’s most polluting industries, but also to take advantage of our solar and wind resources to do more onshore processing.

The vision is built on a massive build of renewables, continuing the trend of cost reductions that have already made wind and solar the cheapest new form of electricity generation.

“I think the cost reductions have really surprised me. And that’s the driving force, I think behind where the industry’s going is just the growing realisation that this is not just a climate mitigation issue, this is an economic opportunity.”

Using more electricity in Australia to make things would also reduce the need to export renewable energy in the form of hydrogen, or transmitted through long distance interconnectors.

“It’s very difficult to transport renewable energy today. I mean, it’s easy to transport coal, for example, it’s in solid form, you stick it on a ship and you send it to China or Japan or South Korea where our coal goes. But actually bottling renewable energy and sending that overseas is much harder.”

Today Australia exports bauxite, alumina and iron ore in world-leading volumes, with much of the refining process undertaken offshore using highly polluting processes.

Boosting Australia’s domestic capacity offers a pathway to capture more value from Australia’s renewable energy and create new opportunities in jobs-rich manufacturing industries.

“We’re going to need lots of skilled people in various capacities, whether that’s plumbers or electricians, trades and the like… It’s a whole chain of jobs all the way from the mines to the banks in Sydney and Melbourne.”

It is an ambitious goal, but one that projects led by Alcoa and Rio Tinto could play an important role in achieving.

“At the end of the day, if you want zero emissions, steel, or 100%, green steel, you have to solve emissions at every part of that supply chain.”

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Electrifying our lives with Professor Renate Egan

Joining us on Rewired, Professor Egan explains the role she has played making solar a common and affordable technology and looking ahead to future opportunities.

“When I started, the price for solar modules was like $12 to $15 a watt. And now we’re seeing it at 20 cents a watt…”

Professor Egan is living her vision: investing in a small solar system in 2008 that she has since expanded and backed up with battery storage; switching to an electric vehicle; and she has plans to replace her gas cooktop and water heater.

“In four months, we’ve put 4000 kilometres on the car. And I haven’t been to a petrol station once.”

In 2013, Professor Egan co-founded Solar Analytics, which provides monitoring information to help solar households understand their energy generation and usage.

The platform is helping households to capture the most value from the energy generated on their rooftops and help to integrate newer technologies like home batteries and EVs.

“Solar is now so cheap, that if you can put it on your roof, you’re mad if you don’t.”

This is part of a mission to improve the customer experience, which she says in the past has been technical and confusing.

Solar panels on roof of Australian home.

While Australians are installing solar at world-leading rates, she is optimistic there are opportunities for massive growth.

“We need to change the way we deliver the technology to make sure that we can grow another tenfold, because we need to see another tenfold growth.”

Acknowledging that the industry is navigating some challenges associated with the dramatic growth of solar, Professor Egan explains we have a toolkit to manage the issues. We just need to communicate more widely the benefits.

Subscribe now

Subscribe to Rewired wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

LIKE THIS STORY? SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER