The federal government is facing calls to use the upcoming budget to kickstart efforts to electrify Australian households and wean them off gas to help fight global warming.
Amid wrangling over the government's proposed safeguard mechanism to tackle emissions from big industrial players, Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has signalled a willingness to invest in a scheme to electrify Australian homes.
Rewiring Australia, the group founded by inventor and outspoken climate campaigner Saul Griffith, is urging the government to set aside $2.5 billion in the May budget to electrify half a million homes.
The group also wants the Commonwealth to enshrine in legislation before the next election an extra $10b for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to "amplify" the work.
Rewiring Australia claims the move would allow the average household to slash its energy bills by $3,000 to $5,000 a year.
"Our argument to the federal government is that household electrification is sound economic policy and vital climate policy," executive director Dan Cass said.
"Electrification will build on Australia's competitive advantage as the leading rooftop solar country in the world."
'Won't happen quickly'
Late last year, Mr Bowen indicated the government would support a "meaningful and substantial package" to help householders swap their gas appliances with electric ones.
The pledge was made as part of the government's efforts to secure support for energy price controls from the Greens.
In a statement, Mr Bowen said the government had identified electrification as a "priority" in the transition away from fossil fuels.
"Too many Australian are paying for wasted energy," Mr Bowen said.
"The Albanese government wants to make every watt count.
"Improving energy performance lowers energy costs, improves productivity and reduces emissions."
However, one gas industry player this week urged caution in the debate about electrifying Australian homes, saying it would be harder and take longer than many people realised.
Tas Gas chief executive Phaedra Deckart said even if governments helped fast-track the move away from gas, some households would continue to need the fuel for another 20 years.
In any case, she said electrification would have to involve government participation and argued that most households would struggle to afford it in the current circumstances.
"In a high-inflation, high-interest rate environment, you're asking households to find somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 per household to take all their gas appliances out and replace them with electricity," Ms Deckart told the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference this week.
"Who has that money lying around today, to do that in a rapid way?
"So, it will happen, but it won't happen quickly."
Under Rewiring Australia's plans, "at least" $2b of the CEFC's existing funds would be extended as concessional loans to electrify households and businesses.
There would also be money to run solar pilot projects across entire suburbs, along with $200m in grants to ensure lower income households could afford to pay for "efficient electric devices, solar and storage and e-bikes", or electric vehicles.
'Return on investment'
Mr Cass stressed that funding for electrification would be money well spent and said Australia's love affair with rooftop solar had demonstrated that clean technologies were not only readily available but commercially attractive.
He said applying the lessons learnt from the solar revolution on a grand scale would provide outsized benefits.
But he warned that Australia risked squandering its lead to other countries, led by the US, which has devoted tens of billions of dollars to electrification under its Inflation Reduction Act.
"There are a whole basket of technologies that, like solar, are worth investing in because they have a return on investment that's positive," Mr Cass said.
"Households already are learning that they can replace very expensive gas heating with cheaper heat pump or spilt system heater air-conditioning units.
"To give an example, in Victoria the average cost of heating a home with gas might be $2.50 or $3 a day.
"The average cost across Australia for a household heating with those heat pumps – so using the spilt system as a heater in winter – is perhaps $1 or a little less a day.
"And if that same household had solar and a battery, the cost, even when they finance those investments, would drop to perhaps half again – maybe 50 or 60 cents."
'A vexed challenge'
For Melbourne man Rob Asselman, the switch to a house powered by electricity rather than gas had been worth the effort.
A year and a half ago, the father of two young girls moved into a home in Montmorency, about 40 minutes north-east of the city.
When several gas appliances broke down shortly after moving in, he saw it as a chance to replace them with electric substitutes, removing the need for a gas connection entirely.
He acknowledged it was not been cheap – and involved an upgrade to the property's electricity supply – but he said his bills had plummeted.
"I turn on my shower, my kids have baths or long showers and my wife has a shower and it's no problem — it's the same," he said.
"I think that's really what any technological innovation needs to get to for wide adoption.
"It just needs to feel normal — and it does."
Electrification made sense to the 40-year-old, but he said it raised some difficult social equality questions.
"It is a vexed challenge," Mr Asselman said.
"I am under no illusions that I'm in a position of fortune that enables me to consider these things.
"And yes, we are at a stage where a lot of the decisions I’ve made are out of the reach of a lot of low-income earners.
"However, there are going to be early adopters who have the lessons for others and make things more mainstream.
"Also, as more people adopt things, the cost curve comes down."
