Why Australia needs to be a renewable energy superpower By Mike Cannon-Brookes
9 November 2018 — 3:30pm
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Australia has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine its place in the world through the production of renewable energy. I share a vision with thousands of Aussies who believe we can get Australia to 100 per cent renewable energy. This transition not only benefits the planet – it presents one of the greatest economic opportunities for our country in terms of job creation and economic growth over the next 10 to 20 years.
More where this came from: 100 per cent renewable energy is not a pipe dream.CREDITETER RAE
This isn’t a pipe dream. Australia is blessed with abundant renewable resources. We have huge open spaces drenched in sun and vast expanses of coastline exposed to powerful winds. If you landed on this planet tomorrow and needed to generate solar and wind power, you’d choose Australia. And you’d be spoilt with choice from sunburnt Western Australia to the windy Great Australian Bight.
Moving our energy generation entirely to renewables is an aspirational and achievable national goal, of which we could be justifiably proud. But we can do better than that. We should be aiming to turn Australia into a renewable energy superpower that exports energy into Asia.
Australians are optimistic people. Let’s lean into the positivity of what could be instead of focusing on the negatives. Australia has a strong track record in innovation – we’re famous for our ingenuity. Take Cochlear, wi-fi, Google Maps – all innovations created in our backyard. We already have an incredible track record of grand engineering projects dating back to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Snowy hydro scheme. We can do it again.
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In energy, Australians are already world beaters who have voted with their … roofs. Today, about five million Australians sleep under a roof with solar panels installed. That’s the highest density per household anywhere in the world.
Then there’s the Hornsdale Power Reserve. You might know it as the “big battery” in South Australia. We are showing the world how it’s done – this battery is three times larger than any other lithium ion battery ever created. Far from the “Big Banana”, as politicians branded it, it’s on track to pay for itself within three years and, more importantly, it’s helping bring down energy bills across South Australia while everybody else’s around the country are growing.
The Hornsdale mega battery.
A lack of strong, consistent policy and vision from our political leaders over the past decade is one of the major reasons for expensive power bills. Our Prime Minister, who not so long ago sat in Parliament waving a lump of coal at the opposition, has defined “fair dinkum power” as energy that turns on when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. I’m one of thousands of Aussies joining together to redefine the term to mean clean, cheap and reliable renewable energy.
Australia exports $27 billion of coal each year. No one would argue that coal hasn't been an important industry for our economy. But the world is changing around us and the coal industry’s future is not bright. We haven’t built a coal plant in Australia since Kogan Creek in 2007 because it just doesn’t make economic sense. Instead, we’ve added gigawatts of wind and solar projects, quite simply because they’re cheaper.
Let’s look at the same topic from another angle – job creation. The construction of the Adani mine was estimated to create about 1500 jobs (a number that I suspect has dwindled since the project has been scaled back). In contrast, renewable projects that are planned and under construction in Queensland alone have created more than 35,000 jobs. The maths stacks up.
So, my request to you, Australia, is to visit www.fairdinkumpower.com.au, read the manifesto and sign the pledge if you agree with it. Talk to your family and friends about it around the dinner table and make sure your MP knows this will be the biggest issue at the upcoming federal election.
If you can, join the occupants of two million Australian households who reduce their power bills with economical rooftop solar. We have an incredible opportunity to produce clean, cheap and reliable power that we can take to the world. But we need to lean into this vision together and make it happen. The prosperity and health of our future generations depend on it. Mike Cannon-Brookes is the co-CEO and co-founder of Australian software company Atlassian.
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