Local communities rolling up their sleeves and doing it themselves

In his recent Quarterly Essay, The Wires that Bind, Dr Saul Griffith argues that the electrification of everything with clean energy could result in the largest wealth transfer inhuman history by enabling communities to keep money in households and communities.

The vision Griffith outlines is one where global emissions are eliminated, billions of dollars are saved by householders and businesses, thousands of jobs created, and communities get to take control of their energy.

“To make the transition we must make, we need not just new physical infrastructure but also new ways of leading and particularly of organising at the community level,” he writes.

“If we wait for government, we’ll wait too long as regards climate, so we need to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves (or even better, by rolling up our sleeves, get government to back us).”

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Since returning to Australia from the US, where he lived and worked for many years, Griffiths has joined forces with a community group in his own neighbourhood that wants to become one of Australia’s first all-electric communities.

Electrify 2515 is a grass roots pilot project generated by committed locals living within the 2515 postcode, just south of Sydney and north of Wollongong.

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Their big vision is to swap out all the household machines in 2515 that run on fossil fuels – from gas cookers to combustion vehicles – and replace them with electric alternatives run on renewable energy.

“Our vision is to bring forward what the future would potentially look like,” Kristen McDonald, one of the Electrify2515 community leaders, told the SwitchedOn Australia podcast. “This is something that can be achieved right now.”

“We don't need to wait for any kind of major changes. We could implement these ideas instantaneously, and they will have instantaneous benefits for communities. And if we can do it here, then hopefully we can show that it can be done everywhere in Australia.”

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Whilst they’re gathering community momentum, and applying for the dollars to do that, Electrify 2515 are also providing their community with practical knowledge about electrification, and the motivation to go all electric.

They’ve calculated that their community of 11,000 people could potentially save $20 million if they swap all their fossil fuel appliances and cars for electric alternatives.

“We worked out that about $4,900 - so close to $5,000 – is spent on energy costs for a household. That's over 3 and a half on petrol and diesel, about $900 on electricity, and about $300 on gas. And so there's potential for about 4 and a half thousand dollars in savings that each household can make in 2515.”

Electrify 2515 believe that those savings could then be redirected back into the local community.

“Collectively we are sending $15 million of money every year, just from our community over to foreign oil companies,” says Kristen McDonald.

“If we could keep even a fraction of that figure … within the community [it would be] “a significant benefit to our local community if we can retain some of that money that is saved on things like not filling up our car every week.”

Community education is a large part of what Electrify 2515 is currently providing their community. They’ve run forums on installing solar panels and helped people become aware of the rebates that the NSW Government offers for solar panels and heat pumps.

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“A lot of this electrification journey for households is going to kind of happen over a pub table,” says Francis Vierboom from Electrify 2515. “People trust the people they know. That's how they make decisions about when they're going to buy a hot water system, or when they're going to get solar panels.”

Electrify 2515 has also partnered with local solar providers so they can offer competitive discounts for local community bulk buys of solar, and are looking at options for electric vehicles.

McDonald and Vierboom are well aware of the current shortage of trades people in Australia to install all the electric appliances we will need. This could slow the electrification transition if government don’t invest in skills training.

However, they’re optimistic that new local jobs will be generated in communities that embrace the electrification transition.

“There's going to be so many jobs, it's going to be fantastic for local economies,” says McDonald.

To make the transition on the scale they would like, Electrify2515 will need serious money and are currently applying for funding from ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

“We really need that interjection of government funding to assist, particularly starting with the low-income households and all the harder-to-electrify kind of households,”says McDonald.

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 Kristen McDonald and Francis Vierboom from Electrify 2515 spoke to the SwitchedOn Australia podcast. You can hear their full interview here.