00:00In early April, about a week after the election was announced, Prime Minister Anthony Alpinesi
00:07announced a $2.3 billion plan to subsidise home batteries, to go with rooftop solar.
00:12Slashing your power bills permanently.
00:15It was Labor's second most expensive election promise, but it never became a big part of
00:20the campaign.
00:21However, that policy, due to kick off on July 1st with 30 per cent cash discounts, represents
00:27a big change in Australia's energy transition, and a week ago we learned why.
00:33The Australian energy market operator published an obscure document called the Draft 2025 Electricity
00:39Network Options Report, which contained this graph.
00:44Each bar represents the cost increase in two years for 10 transmission line projects that
00:49are designed to bring electricity from big solar and wind farms in the bush to cities where
00:55the power is needed.
00:57The cost increases range from 11 per cent to more than 60 per cent.
01:02The average is 31 per cent in two years.
01:07Not only has the cost of building new transmission suddenly become prohibitive, there's also what
01:11AEMO calls the social licence problem.
01:15That is, no one wants power lines across their property.
01:19Putting them underground would cost between three and nine times as much, so that's out.
01:23Last week the energy regulator increased electricity prices and a lot of that was due to rising
01:28transmission costs, as well as ageing coal power stations breaking down all the time.
01:33So more solar and wind is needed and fast.
01:38But a cost blowout plus community opposition means that the plan to achieve net zero carbon
01:43emissions by 2050 has shifted.
01:46It's now all about getting solar onto as many Aussie rooftops as possible and equipping them
01:50with batteries to shift power from day to night.
01:54This is very bad news for the big power companies as more and more of their customers become self-sufficient.
01:59At the same time, the the
02:18wall is built on the
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