As we look back at 10 years since ARENA was first established, we’re speaking with one of the most important names in Australia’s clean energy journey, Ross Garnaut. Economist Ross Garnaut has many descriptions attached to his name - emeritus professor at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University, former economic adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke, ambassador to China, author - but there’s one label you may not have heard: “An old dog for a hard road”. Read more: arena....
Jul 28, 2022•36 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Hysata CEO Paul Barrett explains how research undertaken by two Australian universities is helping them produce the world’s most efficient hydrogen electrolysers. Early in 2022, Australian technology company Hysata announced they had developed a groundbreaking hydrogen electrolyser. The news made a splash, offering a pathway for emissions free hydrogen to compete with methods of production that rely on fossil fuels. Read more: https://arena.gov.au/blog/rewired-game-changing-electrolysers-with-hy...
Jun 15, 2022•20 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Creative ways of storing energy from the wind and sun will be needed to power the next phase of the energy transition. This week on ARENA’s podcast Rewired , we speak to Dr Marnie Shaw from the Australian National University about a new wave of community energy projects. Unlike the small household batteries that are installed behind the meter to soak up rooftop solar power, community batteries can be installed across the distribution network to benefit all households. Read more: arena.gov.au/blo...
Apr 28, 2022•20 min•Season 4Ep. 11
The gift of a solar powered car at just eight years of age set 5B’s Nicole Kuepper-Russell on a pathway that is transforming the way the world produces energy. Now the Chief Operating Officer at solar pioneer 5B, Kuepper-Russell joins Rewired to explain how the company's unique approach is making solar faster to deploy and more affordable. With support from ARENA, 5B is deploying robots and automation at their Sydney manufacturing plant. The project aims to bring down the cost of their prefabric...
Mar 08, 2022•20 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Australian innovators AMSL Aero are taking renewable energy to the skies with their futuristic reimagining of the aircraft. Founders Andrew Moore and Siobhan Lyndon joined us this week to share their vision for air travel and explain how soon we might take off in their emissions free ‘air taxi’. Moore has used his aeronautical engineering background, paired with 15 years experience in the aviation industry, to inform the design of AMSL Aero’s “Vertiia” aircraft. It takes off vertically like a he...
Jan 23, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 9
When Professor Martin Green started his solar research in the 1970s, the idea of using solar panels to power our homes was out of this world. NASA was developing solar technology to power spacecraft and satellites, but was far too expensive and inefficient for terrestrial applications. Half a century on, more than three million Australian homes have panels on their rooftops, combining into a force that is transforming the way we use energy. This week Professor Green joined us this week to share ...
Dec 22, 2021•26 min•Season 4Ep. 8
This week, SEA Electric’s Bill Gillespie joins us to share exciting developments in the world of zero emissions heavy vehicles. Their trucks are now in operation across some of Australia’s biggest fleets, ferrying deliveries for Woolworths, IKEA, Australia Post and DHL, and also helping local councils to reduce emissions. Founded in Australia and now based in Los Angeles, SEA Electric is expanding into international markets, with a growing presence in the US, Europe and Asia. As well as helping ...
Nov 17, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Australian solar pioneers have set a new efficiency benchmark with their next generation cells. From humble beginnings in a garage in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, solar startup SunDrive is on a rapid rise. In September, they announced that they had developed the world’s most efficient silicon cell, claiming the record from China’s Longi Solar. The record is made more significant by the fact that SunDrive’s cells are manufactured with copper in the place of silver, a precious metal that is in limite...
Oct 19, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Fresh off the back of launching ARENA's new investment plan, CEO Darren Miller joins us to explain how renewables could soon shake up the heaviest of heavy industries. In our conversation he explains that investment decisions made today will be key to transforming our energy system and achieving net zero emissions. We also explore the bold vision that underpins ARENA's new investment plan. As well as helping to decarbonise emissions-intensive industries, success could see more value captured fro...
Sep 14, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Working on solar since the 1990s, Professor Renate Egan has helped to transform the way we consume energy, recently taking up the challenge to “electrify everything”. Professor Egan is living her vision, investing in a small solar system in 2008 that she has since expanded and backed up with battery storage. Renate's electrification journey has seen her switch to an electric vehicle and she aims to replace her gas cooktop and water heater within the next year. In 2013 Renate co-founded Solar Ana...
Aug 31, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Cheap, abundant and variable wind and solar is shaking up the electricity market, forcing traders to rethink how energy is bought and sold. The Renewable Energy Hub, an offshoot of global carbon brokers Tradition, is taking up the challenge, creating new renewable-specific ways to trade energy. In the newest episode of Rewired, founder Chris Halliwell joined us to discuss the Hub’s work, explaining that electricity is amongst the most volatile and unpredictable commodities in the world. Read mor...
Aug 11, 2021•18 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Energy transformer Dr John Lasich has helped to take solar from “witchcraft or alchemy” into the cheapest form of energy generation in history. The RayGen founder joined Rewired to discuss how an idea he developed in his shed has attracted $42 million in capital and will soon be deployed on the site of AGL’s Liddell Power Station. His “solar thermal” technology concentrates sunlight to central solar PV receivers to produce electricity, while employing an innovative approach to capture the heat b...
Jul 28, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Green hydrogen offers a renewable alternative to natural gas, but is it a viable energy source for our homes? With 15 years in the energy industry and a background as a chemical engineer, AGIG’s Head of Strategy and Innovation Kristin Raman is one of the quiet transformers having a big impact on the way we use energy. She joined us to discuss AGIG’s plan to transition its natural gas network to hydrogen and explain why she thinks our homes should be repowered with renewable gasses. Read more - h...
Jul 14, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 1
ARENA’s podcast Rewired is back for its biggest season yet. This season, we will introduce you to some of the people transforming Australia’s energy landscape that you might not have heard from before. From startup founders disrupting traditional business models, to the people investing new technologies that could power our lives in the future, Rewired will give you unprecedented access to the front line in the energy transition. Not just generation We will hear how ARENA funding is helping to t...
Jul 02, 2021•2 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Could cheap, plentiful supplies of renewable energy give Australian manufacturers an edge? Around the world, industrial energy users are embracing renewable energy. Global giants IKEA, Lego, Apple and Coca Cola are amongst hundreds of companies blazing a trail, making the RE100 pledge to power their operations entirely with renewables. Closer to home more Australian manufacturers are seeing the benefits of cheap, dependable power - from food producers, to remote mine operators and even companies...
Apr 29, 2020•22 min•Season 3Ep. 6
One of Australia’s oldest and most prolific methods of generating energy is poised to transform the electricity network - again. In this episode of ReWired we take a deep dive into one of the oldest energy storage technologies - pumped hydro. More than a century on from the establishment of the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Department, new hydro projects are being developed as part of work to prepare for a future powered by renewables. In this episode, we hear from Hydro Tasmania CEO Steve Davy about...
Apr 15, 2020•21 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Is it possible for wind and solar to supply reliable, dependable electricity day or night, regardless of the weather? One of the biggest criticisms of renewable energy has been the simple fact that the output of wind and solar farms can vary depending on the weather and time of day. When renewables made up a small part of the generation mix, that variability wasn’t a big problem. But as wind and solar do more of the heavy lifting, it is vital that we find ways to store energy for those times whe...
Apr 01, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Could the most common element in the universe be the key to a future powered by renewables? In this episode of ReWired, we explore how renewable hydrogen could be poised for its moment in the sun. While the potential of hydrogen has been understood for decades, the emergence of electrolyser technology - powered by affordable and plentiful energy from the wind and sun - is a potential game-changer. The opportunity is massive. Just as Australia's resources have underpinned global industry for gene...
Mar 18, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Electric vehicles are finally breaking into the mainstream, but is Australia’s electricity network ready for them? Australia’s EV journey has started slowly. But with more models available than ever before and fast charging networks under construction, for many they are becoming a viable alternative. In this episode of ReWired, experts share their perspective on why you should consider an EV for your next car. Learn about work underway to make sure the electricity grid can cope with a growing fl...
Mar 04, 2020•23 min•Season 3Ep. 2
We are pleased to bring you the third season of ARENA's podcast, ReWired: Solving the Energy Puzzle . We begin inside a net zero emissions home overflowing with renewable energy technology. Hear what inspired the owners to reimagine the modern Australian home to create and consume energy as efficiently as possible. We speak to energy leaders about the challenge of integrating the array of behind the meter technologies into a grid designed last century. AEMO CEO Audrey Zibelman and Australia's Ch...
Feb 19, 2020•29 min•Season 3Ep. 1
As we enter a new decade, ARENA is launching season three of our podcast ReWired. Together we will look at the different pieces of Australia’s energy puzzle, and learn how they might come together in a future powered by renewables. Over six episodes, energy experts and innovators will explore a wide range of topics - the role of large-scale storage in balancing the grid, the transition to a consumer-driven energy system, and the electric vehicle revolution driving us to a more sustainable transp...
Feb 10, 2020•2 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Isolated from mainland Tasmania and at the mercy of the elements, the residents of Flinders Island have always prided themselves on their self-reliance. We take a trip across the Bass Strait as Hydro Tasmania's new Hybrid Energy Hub kicks in to gear to find out how the shift away from diesel generation to renewables will affect lives. Dewi Cooke meets some of the locals and hears how this small island has lived with intermittent electricity for years, while Adam Morton gets the lowdown on the Hu...
Dec 14, 2017•22 min•Season 2Ep. 6
How many times would people tell you 'no' before you believed you couldn't? For Telstra Energy's Nada Kalam, the first time someone told her that 'girls can't do engineering' was in high school - and it's lit a fire under her ever since. In this episode of The Innovators we explore a recognised issue within the energy industry: women's representation. And, as an energy systems engineer with one of Australia's biggest energy consumers, Nada shares how Telstra is using renewable technology to fort...
Dec 07, 2017•35 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Virtual power plants and digital energy marketplaces. These are the intangible, unseen elements of the energy revolution yet they're central to Bruce Thompson's working life. But 20 years ago, Thompson was just a keen-eyed engineering student concerned about the environment and "this thing called climate change". A former activist and director of major projects at the Moreland Energy Foundation Limited (MEFL), he's been able to ride the wave of interest in environmental concern over the decades ...
Nov 30, 2017•35 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In 2016, Katerina Kimmorley was working in India with her solar energy social enterprise, Pollinate Energy , bringing real, tangible change to the lives of thousands of people living without electricity in India's urban slums. So what brought her home after years away to the world of venture capital and renewable energy start-ups? In this episode we hear about her journey to the helm of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's Innovation Fund where she has a front row seat to Australia's energy re...
Nov 22, 2017•30 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Sometimes, life doesn't work out as you'd expect. Sometimes, what might seem like a failure is actually an opportunity for success. In this episode of The Innovators you'll meet two scientists whose own failed lab experiment led them to something, arguably, more exciting. In early 2017, RMIT University academics Torben Daeneke and Kourosh Kalantar Zadeh released details of a "solar paint", one that uses the power of the sun to generate hydrogen from moisture in the air. With hydrogen a potential...
Nov 16, 2017•39 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In the first episode of our new series of ReWired: The Innovators, Adam Morton meets Dr Jemma Green - a former investment banker, entrepreneur and, most recently, interim mayor of the City of Perth. She's also co-founder of energy trading start-up PowerLedger, which stormed through its Initial Coin Offering earlier this year and raised $34 million for its platform allowing electricity consumers to receive and trade energy with power companies, and each other. Jemma talks of the demise of a centu...
Nov 08, 2017•36 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Australia is in the midst of an energy revolution and The Innovators wants to take you to the cutting edge of it. It's a place of hydrogen-producing solar paint, of virtual power plants and energy cryptocurrencies. It's a place of pure innovation and leadership, sparked by individuals with a renewable energy future in their sights and, often, extraordinary stories of their own to tell. Yes, between the politics, the market and the consumer, there's a lot of noise distorting the energy debate rig...
Oct 30, 2017•2 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Welcome to all the new listeners downloading ReWired since Apple Podcasts featured the show as New & Noteworthy . If you've already heard the series please subscribe to get new episodes in the future, and leave a review on iTunes. If you'd like to know anymore informationa about renewable energy projects around Australia visit ARENA.gov.au See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Aug 03, 2017•3 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Perched on twin hills about two hours north of Perth and built on the remains of prehistoric beach are two renewable energy farms - one established and the other underway. The Emu Downs wind farm and soon to be solar farm next door have been a boon for the local area of Badgingarra. Farming families have members already employed under the turbines and local businesses are on site at the solar farm. The complexities of Australia’s energy mix and what that might look like have been a minor feature...
Jul 11, 2017•18 min•Season 1Ep. 6
