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Engineer, inventor, chief scientist and co-founder of Rewiring Australia
Dr Saul Griffith is an engineer, inventor, and one of Australia’s most straight-talking voices for climate action. He’s an Australian-American engineer who argues that solving climate change is largely about replacing combustion machines - gas furnaces, petrol cars, and more - with electric alternatives at massive scale.
He studied engineering at UNSW and Sydney, then headed to MIT in the US where he earned a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2007 for inventions ranging from kite-powered wind turbines (Makani, later acquired by Google) to self-assembling robots. He also completed an MIT PhD and founded the open-source DIY community Instructables.
Silicon Valley and climate engineering insight
After two decades running Otherlab - a San Francisco R&D shop building everything from soft robots for DARPA to giant inflatable structures - he shifted from inventing things to inventing policy, founding Rewiring America to bring the electrification agenda from engineering whiteboards into federal legislation. For him, climate change wasn’t some distant, unsolvable crisis - it was an engineering problem.
His 2021 book Electrify became a key reference behind tens of billions of dollars in US Inflation Reduction Act incentives for heat pumps, EVs, and rooftop solar. His work helped shape the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act - the largest investment in clean energy in US history.
Returning to Australia and electrifying homes
He returned to Australia in 2021 with a simple idea: the fastest, cheapest, most powerful thing any Australian could do about climate change was to electrify their home. Replace gas heaters, petrol cars, hot water systems, and gas cooktops -one machine at a time. It sounds modest, but the numbers are huge. Ten million Australian households will buy around 100 million machines over the next two decades, and every one of those decisions needs to be electric.
In a country with more rooftop solar than any other, and some of the cheapest electricity in the world, Saul believes Australia could and should become the first fully electrified economy on Earth.
Rewiring Australia and a national electrification movement
Rewiring Australia began with Saul and a handful of volunteers around a kitchen table in a coastal suburb near Wollongong in NSW. There was no office and no budget -just a shared conviction that Australians deserved to understand they weren’t powerless in the face of climate change, and that the solution was already sitting in their driveway and on their roof.
What began as a volunteer effort is now a full-time organisation - researchers, community organisers, and policy experts - all focused on making electrification easy, fair, and fast for every Australian household.
There are now community pilot projects running in Thirroul and Bulli (links), over 100 community groups (links) across the country, and thousands of Australians who’ve been shown that getting off fossil fuels can be done one appliance at a time - with savings that can run into thousands of dollars each year.
Electric Saul - a practical tool for Australians to get off gas
Electric Saul translates Saul’s expertise into something practical and personal for Australian households. It turns years of research, modelling, and advocacy into an online tool that provides clear, usable guidance on what electrification means at home-, for instance what to replace, what to prioritise, and how to turn curiosity into action.
Built on the experience of Rewiring Australia’s national work, Electric Saul will reach Australians at scale.
ElectricSaul will launch after Saul Griffith’s second appearance on Australian Story on June 8, showing how electrifying your home is now a mainstream conversation happening in lounge rooms across the country.
Saul and the Rewiring team started Australia’s move toward electrification, and they won’t stop until every fossil fuel appliance is powered by cheaper, cleaner, solar electricity.
Saul's books have helped shape electrification policy across two countries. Whether you're just starting out or ready to go all-in, these books will help get you there.
Buy your copies here
Rewiring Australia is a non-profit 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.
Rewiring Australia is an Australian charity registered with the ACNC with Deductible Gift Recipient status (ABN 18 664 239 196). All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Contact us: electrify@rewiringaustralia.org
