Electrify 2515 celebrates renewable energy conversion of 60 Illawarra homes
Scores of households have been converted to run off renewable energy in a significant step towards the goal of electrifying an entire New South Wales postcode.
Tosca Lloyd is one of the lucky few to benefit from the Electrify 2515 community pilot, which has so far converted 60 homes in the Illawarra postcode.
She said saving money was just as important as addressing climate change.
"We see switching to renewables and electrifying as one and the same as addressing the cost of living crisis and also the climate crisis," Ms Lloyd said.
She was also motivated to get gas out of the house for health reasons because her young son suffers from a respiratory illness.
Ms Lloyd installed a "really big" solar system, a large battery, converted to a ducted heating system and installed an electric heat pump.
"All of that cost around $40,000, but we only ended up being out of pocket by around $32,000.
Another 440 households have signed up for the program.
Rewiring Australia founder Saul Griffith said the scheme was about starting small and then going big.
"So we know that 11 million Australian households have to get to zero emissions by probably 2040," he said.
"We thought we would really try to accelerate what that looks like in one community — that was the origins of 2515.
"We've had a great community response … 500 homes out of 4,000.
"That's about 15 per cent have signed up to participate."
The scheme has built-in equity measures — the more you earn, the lower the subsidy.
"A really kind of fabulous thing we found out about our community is a lot of the higher net-worth families are doing it for climate reasons," Dr Griffith said.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has funded the program to the tune of $5.4 million so far.
Endeavour Energy manages the network and its future-energy strategy manager James Hazelton said he was confident the grid could handle the added load and that customers would not face higher energy costs.
"But we also want to make it clear that through the journey to electrification, while customers are going to save money by having less fuel use and gas use, they are not going to face higher network charges," he said.
The network operator will closely monitor the program to determine whether improvements are required for converted households.
"We're using this as a case study to understand what's the right balance of visibility and network upgrades that might need to take place," Dr Hazelton said.
The Illawarra region, which includes the city of Wollongong and Port Kembla has become a hub for renewable development.
It remains to be seen whether a proposed offshore wind farm eventuates 20 kilometres off the coast, but in May the NSW government announced that the region had become the state's first "urban renewable energy zone".
Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said that meant preparations were underway for more green manufacturing opportunities, research, renewable energy storage facilities and trial of new grid technologies to improve solar uptake.
In January, federal Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen encouraged community energy projects similar to Electrify 2515 to apply for funding.
ARENA has confirmed it is also funding about half of a $13.8m home electrification pilot for 500 homes in South Australia.
"The primary project objective is to demonstrate the customer and sector benefits of demand flexibility and smart homes to help accelerate their deployment at scale," an ARENA spokesperson said.
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