Never mind the fossil “sideshow,” renewables have won: Electrification is the new policy battlefront

A coalition of energy and consumer advocacy organisations is urging the federal government to seize the moment of the global oil price shock and fast-track the switch to efficient electric technologies wherever possible across Australia’s economy, from cars to stovetops and trucks to heat pumps.

The group, including Energy Consumers Australia, Energy Efficiency Council, Electric Vehicle Council, Green Building Council of Australia, Rewiring Australia and Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, says “turbocharging electrification” will bolster security, affordability and productivity.

“It is in Australia’s national interest to take a giant leap forward in the adoption of electric technologies, including electric cars and trucks, heat pumps, induction cooktops and clean industrial heat,” the group said in a joint statement on Monday.

“It helps insulate Australians from volatile international commodity markets, leverages our abundant home-grown renewable energy advantage, reduces running costs, and puts Australian business on a more competitive footing.”

Francis Vierboom, the CEO of Rewiring Australia, says there’s never been a more “coherent narrative” that Australia will be a safer and more economically robust country if we shift our homes, buildings, businesses, transport and industries onto electricity.

“It’s the lowest-cost opportunity we have,” Vierboom told Renew Economy in an interview on Monday. “Australia is kind of uniquely able to point to that and say, You know what? This is such a clear answer for us, where we don’t have the oil and we do have the sunshine.

“There are not many countries that have such a clear option in front of them to get out of the way of the kind of problems that that we’re living through right now.”

Of course, there is still significant political push-back from some quarters of parliament, where a grid run on a majority of renewables remains anathema and the knee-jerk reaction to a energy crisis is to discount petrol, dig up more gas and prolong the life of coal.

But Vierboom says this is just a “sideshow” to the main event.

“In the shootout between building more renewables and building, you know, a coal to oil … thing from like from the set of Mad Max, renewables are going to win that fight,” he tells Renew Economy.

“They’re already at 50 per cent and they’ll be at 80 per cent, you know, or close to, before even the next election. So… that fight’s actually done. It’s actually …kind of just a culture war relic, at this point, to shout about how much we should build coal-fired power stations or something.

“What is going to be much harder is on the demand side, and on helping people update … equipment supply chains to run on electricity.

“That’s a big job… to put forward a plan that’s actually transformative, that really sets the marker towards electrification… and has something in it for all industries that need to replace gas… and takes a look at the tax settings and the subsidies that currently make it slower and harder to make that upgrade.

“I would say the really important thing is for the Prime Minister to actually seize the opportunity of this moment, and… not let it drift, but actually set a decisive course that’s going to build a legacy for Australia for a couple of decades, that gets us on track towards some real independence, and as well, as, you know, a net zero economy that’s actually helpful for the planet, just as a nice little bonus.”

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