SwitchedOn Australia

Ireland is developing one of the most sophisticated residential energy efficiency ecosystems in the world, built on a foundation of serious government funding, pilot projects & trials, grants, mandatory efficiency standards, financing, and one-stop-shops. Josephine Maguire from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland discusses the program and why taking the time to learn what matters to householders is key to its success.

When Katherine McConnell started her finance company Brighte, her mission was to get more solar panels on rooftops – to make more houses sustainable - by offering zero interest loans. Brighte has since evolved and grown into a one stop shop helping to finance and install solar, batteries, heating, cooling, heat pumps, EVs, and induction cooktops.

Sage Briscoe, Director of Federal Policy for Rewiring America, discusses the landmark US $500 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which is designed to help electrify American households, revolutionise how they interact with energy, modernise the electricity grid, and reshape American manufacturing.

Gordon Noble from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, discusses why we can't rely on government grants to electrify and green retrofit our homes - we need accessible finance from lenders.

Chef and kitchen consultant Luke Burgess on why induction stoves are so efficient and why he thinks they are unlikely to be superseded any time soon.

Half of Australia's lighting is still inefficient 'tubes and bulbs'. Harry Verhaar from Signify, the largest lighting company in Australia, discusses how efficient LED lighting is one of the easiest, ready-to-implement technologies that can help transition to a low carbon economy.

Rob Murray-Leach from the Energy Efficiency Council discusses how we can get to net zero faster, easier and cheaper if households adopt energy efficiency measures like insulation and efficient electric appliances.

Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper from the ANU discusses her focus group research that shows many people don't trust private companies with vested profit interests when it comes to energy technology and electrification. But they trust other householders on the same energy transition journey.

Rather than a ‘hub and spoke model’ where all our power generation is centralised, and the home is just a consumer, we hear how the all-electric home of the future could become 'intelligent.' Raghu Belur, the Chief Product Officer for Enphase, a high tech clean energy company based in California, provides a vision of what it can do.

Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and lead author on transport for the IPCC, Peter Newman, says electric transport not only provides an opportunity to produce healthier, net zero vehicles, it enables us to rethink and build healthier, better cities.