SwitchedOn Australia

When renewable energy developers first approached the Hay Shire Council in south-west NSW, the council saw both opportunity and risk. With the region designated as a Renewable Energy Zone and major wind projects on the horizon, they knew the energy transition could bring real benefits, but also real community division. Rather than sit back and let events unfold, they took the lead, helping ensure the community would engage with the transition. In partnership with the community, Hay Shire Council developed a proactive, inclusive process that not only kept the community informed, but led to a clear, community-driven set of benefit proposals, ranging from long-term affordable energy to supported housing. Ali McLean, the Council’s Economic Development Manager, shares how local government can shape the future when it steps up early and listens closely.

Grassroots footy is already feeling the heat of climate change, from flooded clubrooms and damaged ovals to training sessions cancelled as temperatures climb. Footy for Climate CEO Lex Lynch explains how nearly 600 community footy clubs have needed emergency assistance since Black Summer, revealing just how vulnerable the game has become. He shares how AFL players, fans and volunteers are working together to protect the sport they love, launching practical solutions like the Power Forward program, which installs solar and batteries to slash bills and keep clubs resilient. Lex discusses why players are deeply concerned about climate impacts, how trusted sporting figures can help build community confidence, and the growing movement to future-proof local clubs. And with a goal to upgrade 500 clubs by 2030, he shows how footy can lead Australia’s climate response from the ground up.

Last winter, Declan Kelly set out to test whether a retail plan offering three hours of free electricity could heat his Central NSW Coast rental for nothing. The experiment, which previews what millions of households may soon try under the Federal Government’s Solar Sharers scheme, revealed just how far tariff-shifting can get you in a leaky Australian home. Kelly managed to lift the indoor temperature from 15 degrees to a tropical 32, only to watch the heat disappear almost as fast as it arrived. That experience led to a larger realisation: if these offers are meant for renters and people who can’t put solar on their roofs, they will only go so far unless we confront the poor thermal performance of Australia’s housing stock. Kelly — who writes the newsletter Currently Speaking and is the regulatory policy and corporate affairs manager at Flow Power — argues that no energy-market reform can compensate for walls, roofs and windows that can’t hold heat. His experiment prompts a sharper question about what Solar Sharer can and can’t fix, and what governments and regulators must tackle if these new tariffs are to deliver genuine savings for the people they’re designed to help.

Australia could soon be throwing away huge amounts of renewable energy simply because there’s nowhere for it to go. It’s partly why the Federal government has announced its Solar Sharer scheme – a way for households to mop up free, excess electricity for 3 hours in the middle of the day. But is Australia in danger of building a high-renewables grid that leans too heavily on households to solve structural problems? Long-time consumer energy advocate and Senior Advisor with the Justice and Equity Centre, Craig Memery, argues large industrial loads, not households, could be doing more of the heavy lifting on demand flexibility. He warns that renters, shift workers and anyone who can’t move their energy use to the middle of the day could end up subsidising those who can. And he champions energy efficiency as the overlooked “no-brainer” that cuts bills, emissions and peak demand for everyone.

Parents for Climate CEO Nic Seton unpacks the next chapter in the group’s fight against misleading climate claims. After securing a major settlement against Energy Australia earlier this year — which led to an apology to 400,000 customers and the withdrawal of the company’s Go Neutral product — the Parents have turned their sights to the claims made by other energy retailers, and the government sanctioned Climate Active scheme that endorsed it. Their new report reveals that one in three major retailers are making potentially misleading claims — and they name who they are. Nic explains why the government-backed standard isn’t fit for purpose, and how it’s enabling energy retailers to market products that look green but don’t stack up.

Tens of thousands of First Nations households across northern Australia are living with the constant threat of power cuts — some being disconnected from electricity nearly every week. Lauren Mellor from Original Power and Dr Tom Longden from Western Sydney University discuss their new report, The Right to Power – Keeping First Nations Communities on Prepayment Connected, which exposes the staggering human and systemic toll of prepaid electricity systems. They reveal how prepayment — a system often imposed without consent and designed to shift financial risk from retailers to consumers — is leaving families in the dark, often during extreme heat. They discuss the failures of retailers to protect vulnerable customers, the ‘racialised’ nature of prepayment rollouts, and the reforms needed to keep communities connected. From automatic hardship concessions to heatwave disconnection bans and community solar programs, they argue it’s time to end a two-tiered energy system that no other Australians would tolerate.

Australia’s electricity sector is decarbonising — but not fast enough. While the Renewable Energy Target has been doing the heavy lifting to incentivise the rollout of wind and solar, it doesn’t require fossil fuel generators to cut their emissions. For years governments have avoided putting a price on carbon, fearing it would drive up power bills. But new modelling from the Grattan Institute shows those fears are outdated — household energy costs are actually set to fall as more Australians switch from petrol and gas to electric. They argue that by extending the existing Safeguard Mechanism, which is already used to cap the emissions of large industrial polluters and the transport sector, we could accelerate the clean-energy shift without increasing household electricity bills. Alison Reeve, Program Director for Energy and Climate Change at the Grattan Institute, explains how this approach could deliver both lower bills and lower emissions.