$12.5 billion plan for rewiring nation

Rewiring Australia is proposing a $12.5 billion plan to rewire homes and businesses by replacing fossil-fuelled devices with modern electric technology powered by solar and batteries.

By swapping combustion-engine cars and gas-fired stoves, heaters and water with solar-backed zero emission electric equivalents, Australian households can permanently lower energy bills by $3000–$5000 per household annually, according to the organisation. The Biden Administration has made household electrification the cornerstone of its Inflation Reduction Act, with significant input from Rewiring America.

In mid-December, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen confirmed he would craft a package to support electrification for the May Budget. Rewiring Australia’s Budget pre-submission calls for a targeted $500 million package of expenditure over five years plus $2 billion off-budget from existing Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) funds, to achieve widespread adoption of electrification. Before the next election, the budget package would be amplified with legislation to add $10 billion to the CEFC’s existing $30 billion.

Key recommendations include redirecting at least $2 billion of existing CEFC funds as concessional finance to accelerate electrification, with two-thirds of this directed to at least partly electrifying 500,000 households, with the remainder targeted to businesses.

Rewiring Australia also advocates for $200 million to be placed in Solar Electric Suburb lighthouse projects, with these whole-suburb pilots providing a living laboratory to demonstrate the future of the global energy system. Australia would be able to use these insights to develop world-leading new technologies and businesses, including home energy management systems and grid integration, as well as broader policy and regulatory solutions for the electrified cities and shires of the future.

It also recommends an additional $200 million in grants for low-income households and disadvantaged communities, to help pay for the purchase of efficient electric devices, solar and storage, and e-bikes or EVs. This would lock in ongoing low energy bills and cost of living for these homes, while improving energy resilience. The plan would be designed in consultation with communities and welfare agencies.

Written by Rewiring Australia co-founder and chief scientist Dr Saul Griffith and newly appointed Executive Director and Co-founder Dan Cass, the submission highlights the need for subsidies to be carefully designed to avoid harming the installers and companies who will do the work of electrification. The government is urged to consult early on with the Smart Energy Council, unions and other industry bodies on subsidy design and the timing of announcements.

Griffith said no nation was better placed to accelerate electrification and reap the benefits.

“Australians have already experienced the miracle of rooftop solar, in greater numbers than anywhere in the world. Now they want the government to help them fully electrify their homes because they know it will permanently obliterate both their energy bills and carbon emissions.

“We have to grasp this opportunity and bring the whole community along. Focusing our electrification efforts on low-income and social housing communities is the right thing to do but it’s also smart. Freeing these communities of fossil fuel power bills will give them a massive economic boost and create enormous job opportunities.”

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