Australia must double down on electrification after AEMO’s Integrated System Plan (ISP) found the country can reliably run on renewable energy but needs more of it.
“The ISP makes clear that the best course of climate action is to double down on progress made already, support the 3.8 million households with rooftop solar and not U-turn towards slow and expensive nuclear baseload power,” said Dan Cass, Executive Director of Rewiring Australia.
“Consumer-owned rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and batteries from households and businesses have the largest potential for generation, storage, and firming capacity by 2050 – more potential than nuclear.
“Electrification is the shortest circuit to a clean energy system for Australia and the fairest way to get there. Rooftop solar is the world’s cheapest delivered energy, and nuclear cannot compete.
“Now governments and industry must coordinate better to deliver large-scale renewables. This includes communicating the benefits of clean energy to communities, negotiating with them in good faith, and sharing the benefits of clean energy infrastructure more fairly with locals.
“We also need to focus more on consumers in cities and towns by super-sizing solar and storage on these distribution networks,” Mr Cass added.
“Electrification is the fastest, cheapest, and fairest way to decarbonize. We must seize this opportunity to ensure more Australians enjoy the benefits of household electrification as soon as possible.”
