2024 has been a landmark year for household electrification, with Australia charging full steam ahead into a cleaner, brighter future.
2024 has been a landmark year for household electrification, with Australia charging full steam ahead into a cleaner, brighter future. From record-breaking solar installations to game-changing policy shifts, here are some of this year’s hits for the electrification movement. Thank you to each one of you who has supported Rewiring Australia on its mission to electrify everything for everyone and helped drive much of this electric change.
Here are just some of the electrifying moments:
Read on for our 2024 wrapped.
This year we saw the launch of our Electrify 2515 Community Pilot, the world’s first community-led pilot where we will support 500 homes in the 2515 postcode to electrify and undertake critical research. Installations are already underway, and we can’t wait to share the results of this two-year project that will be a blueprint for Australia’s solar electric future.
The electrification movement is taking off, with 55 electric communities groups operating at different capacities across the country. We headed out to communities to meet the people driving electrification on the ground, from Healesville to Riddells Creek, Fremantle to Newcastle, Killcare to Kogarah, giving talks, resources and support. We also held our own Electrify Everything events in Perth, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. All in all, Rewiring Australia’s team gave over 50 public talks in the year championing the electrification message and promoting the positive work of local community groups driving change.
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Saul also started inspiring the next wave of the electrification movement, running an electric go-kart program at his local public school.
A huge part of our advocacy work is meeting with politicians at all levels of government to share our knowledge on electrification. It’s a core foundation of our work as we know that while you get on the job with making changes in your home, we need decision makers to implement policies that make electrification accessible for more households.
Victoria led the way in transitioning away from fossil fuels, removing gas from new homes and introducing minimum rental standards to make electrification accessible for renters. This signals the beginning of the end for residential gas networks.
The Queensland government embraced a bold commitment to net zero with 75% emissions reduction by 2035 while the ACT released its Integrated Energy Plan. NSW announced a battery subsidy program, making energy storage accessible for more rooftop solar users and South Australia now generates more than 70% of its electricity from renewable sources!
And the Australian Government announced a review of the National Electricity Market, which Rewiring Australia has been calling for for two years. We believe Australia needs a new deal in energy markets that puts households who have invested in new energy capacity through electric appliances, rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles are placed on the same footing as the big energy companies. This year, we were given a seat at the regulatory reform table, and have been advocating for households in consultations with the Australian Energy Regulator.
We spent much of 2024 advocating for universal finance for electrification. We worked with experts at the Australian National University on our policy proposal, the Electrify Everything Loan Scheme, which led to coverage across print, TV and online. Our modelling demonstrated how property-contingent loans would help more households electrify, and bring $1.7 trillion in savings by 2050. The idea is simple: homeowners can out a low-risk loan to make electrification upgrades to their house, which is then repaid when the house is next sold. It was described by one political reporter as a big idea that “lands squarely in a political sweet spot where all sides have an incentive to lean-in rather than trash.”
We led the conversation on electrification, adding our voice to over 100 media stories ranging from solar feed-in tariffs, NEM reform, community batteries, to 2030 emissions targets, and Masterchef’s greenwashing tactics with its use of so-called renewable gas.
Our colleagues at Rewiring Aotearoa have been busy advocating for the electrification of the country’s cars, homes and farms in 2024. This year saw the release of a groundbreaking report Investing in Tomorrow written with Paul Conway, the Chief Economist of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, outlining the economic wins if NZ electrified everything.
We’re all heading down electric avenue. A record-breaking 100,000 EVs were sold in Australia in 2024, and the new BYD ute launched, creating so much buzz that the pre-order website crashed.
The EV market continues to grow, with over 4000 used EVs now available on the market, and prices for new electric vehicles dropping to as low as $33,000. Rewiring Australia research has shown that household decisions can have a huge impact on emissions, with 60% of household energy costs coming from fuel, so we’re excited to see momentum for EVs building. With vehicle-to-grid charging just around the corner for Australia, we don’t see the EV market slowing down in 2025.
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We’re pumped by the battery capacity under construction across the country. The large scale batteries currently under construction will have five times the National Electricity Market’s current capacity, and 10 times the total storage available!
Australia celebrated its four millionth solar installation, well and truly cementing the solar revolution. Rooftop solar is becoming such a force in this country that some parts of the country have had over 80% solar penetration this year! Rewiring Australia’s research has amplified the positive role solar can bring to household savings as well as to the national grid.
The electrification revolution is a bold, strategic reimagining of our energy landscape, powered by grassroots groups like Farmers for Climate Action who are advocating for climate action in their communities. The Renew Australia for All campaign brought together a coalition of 50+ groups to demand systemic change and government investment to help more Australians access energy upgrades and electric appliances.
In 2024 we launched our monthly newsletter, to keep supporters like you up to date on what’s happening behind the scenes and boosted our social presence to over 17,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Bluesky (make sure you like them)! We also hosted webinars with Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy and our CEO Dan Cass, while Sarah Aubrey (@electrify_this) and Brendan Lang (@getoffgas)shared their electrification tips. We’d love to bring you more webinars in the new year, so we’d love to hear your suggestions for next year.
The electrification movement has scored some impressive wins in 2024, thanks to supporters like you. There’s a federal election just around the corner, and regardless of who is PM, the momentum towards a solar electric future continues to grow. As our Co-Founder Dr Saul Griffith says, “a community that electrifies together, thrives together”, and we’re so excited to be on the journey with you.
See you in 2025!
The Rewiring Australia team
Rewiring Australia is a non-profit, independent, non-partisan organisation dedicated to representing the people, households and communities in the energy system. We empirically demonstrate and communicate the cost savings, emissions reductions, and energy system benefits of electrification.
Rewiring Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live, meet and work and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
Rewiring Australia is a member of Climate Action Network Australia.
