Earlier this month, two competing visions for the future of farming emerged on opposite sides of the country. At Gina Rinehart’s Bush Summit in Broome, renewables were cast as a threat to rural communities, while in Canberra, the inaugural Farming Forever Summit highlighted how clean energy is sustaining farm livelihoods. Fourth-generation farmer Charlie Prell knows the difference firsthand. After years of drought and falling commodity prices pushed his Crookwell property to the edge, wind turbines helped secure his farm’s future and supported his retirement. Charlie shares his story of resilience and why he sees renewables as part of farming’s survival, not its downfall. But he’s blunt about some of the renewable industry’s missteps and how rushed contracts and divisive tactics by some developers left scars that still fuel distrust and give ammunition to anti-renewables campaigns. The challenge now is to rebuild trust, ensure farmers have genuine agency, and prove that clean energy can strengthen rural communities rather than undermine them.
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The game changing tool to protect birds in Australia’s renewable rollout
A new tool to help Australia build renewables in the right places will launch this November. Called AVISTEP, it uses millions of bird sightings, decades of research and expert modelling to map where wind, solar and transmission projects are likely to have low, medium or high impacts on biodiversity. The aim is to get renewables built — but built in the right places – and avoid conflicts like the Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania, recently approved despite sitting in a critical bird migration corridor. Already available overseas, AVISTEP works on a simple traffic-light system — green for go, red for no, amber for “find somewhere better.” BirdLife Australia’s Dr. Golo Maurer explains how the tool works and why it could be a game-changer for the renewable rollout.
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Electrify 2515’s early wins road testing Australia’s electric future
What happens when an entire community decides to ditch gas and go electric? That’s the challenge behind Electrify 2515, Australia’s most ambitious community electrification pilot. Backed by Rewiring Australia, Brighte, Endeavour Energy, and ARENA, the project is helping 500 households in postcode 2515 swap in heat pumps, induction cooktops, and solar quickly, and at scale. 60 homes have already taken the leap, and the early lessons reveal a lot about costs, supply chains, and how people are actually living with smart energy tech. John Buchelin from Rewiring Australia, and the pilot’s operations manager outlines what’s working, what’s not, and why this bold experiment matters for households, tradies, and the future of the grid.
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Plug in and fight back - Saul Griffith wants a consumer army to fight for energy justice
Dr Saul Griffith joins SwitchedOn Australia live on the Gold Coast to talk about his new book Plug In! and why households are central to driving Australia’s clean energy transition. He explains how electrification can cut emissions fast, save money, and reshape the way we use energy at home and in our communities. Saul shares insights from his career advising governments, including his role in shaping the US Inflation Reduction Act, and his work with Rewiring America and Rewiring Australia. He speaks candidly about consumer power, culture wars, and the politics of accelerating change. And he makes the case for an ‘army of consumers’ to demand a better deal from Australia’s energy system.
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The bold trial challenging ‘poles and wires’ thinking
Australia’s electricity system was designed around a centralised model, where generators, networks and retailers stay in their own tightly regulated 'swim lanes.' But with the rise of rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles, integrating decentralised energy is proving a major challenge. Ausgrid, the country’s largest electricity distributor, has proposed a bold pilot to turn unused commercial rooftops into solar hubs, link them with community batteries, and share that power with 32,000 households, including renters and apartment dwellers who can’t access solar. The model could potentially lower bills, reduce network costs, reduce the amount of new transmission that’s needed, and make the system fairer. Critics, however, warn that allowing networks to move into generation and storage could stifle competition, raising big questions about who should deliver local power and how to balance innovation with consumer fairness. Marc England, the CEO of Ausgrid, puts the case for embracing opportunities that are currently being missed.
Australia