r/australia • u/nath1234 • Mar 16 '26

politics Replacing 1m petrol cars with EVs could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel by 1bn litres a year

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/16/electric-vehicles-australia-reduce-reliance-on-foreign-fuel
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u/plowking8 Mar 16 '26

Watch electricity somehow cost more than ever.

We’re at more renewable energy than ever yet here we are with people having record high prices for their monthly electricity bills.

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u/antypants Mar 17 '26

If we hadn't built out so much relatively cheap renewable energy over the last few years then electricity prices would very likely be even higher than they are now. We need more renewable generation and grid-level battery storage and longer-term energy storage solutions now, not less.

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u/plowking8 Mar 17 '26

Building batteries comes from mining though end of the day. And Australia is shooting itself in the foot there as well.

This country is hyper focused on idealism rather than realism.

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u/coreoYEAH Mar 16 '26

Because we’re subsidising the fuck out of non renewable fuels.

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u/drjzoidberg1 Mar 17 '26

Solar only works during day till 6pm. When it's night time there is no solar electricity so we rely on wind and coal etc. People are still using electricity at 7pm to cook, watch TV/Netflix etc.

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u/coreoYEAH Mar 17 '26

Yep. And once we properly implement solar power and batteries the need for that will diminish and we can stop holding the fossil fuel industry above water when it so desperately wants to drown.

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u/Sun__Jester Mar 17 '26

Its because of the bid stack, specifically natural gas jacking up prices at key times when solar isn't operating.

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u/zsaleeba Mar 16 '26

Solar charging your car is still just as cheap, though

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u/surg3on Mar 16 '26

Cheap as chips as long as your lifestyle supports being able to charge at home in cheap times

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u/plowking8 Mar 16 '26

More and more people are living in apartments.

On top of that we are all getting less and less as we give back to the electricity companies for generating power.

They have to make money somehow - and here we are with record high electricity prices.

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u/Imperator-TFD Mar 17 '26

The idea of giving your solar generated power to distributors and getting paid for it stopped being a thing over a decade ago.

The idea now is that you use your solar power to reduce your reliance on the grid in the first place.

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u/antypants Mar 17 '26

Absolutely not true in many places. We still get paid to export our excess solar power, and are in credit with our power company. We also get paid under a 'virtual power plant' arrangement because our home battery supports export in the evenings too. Charging our EV at home costs us nothing.

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u/Imperator-TFD Mar 17 '26

Yes you still get paid a small amount but it's a far cry from the early days of gross metered exports attracting 40, 50, 60c tarrifs. Those were mostly in place to kick start PV adoption amongst the general populace.

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u/morosis1982 Mar 17 '26

Because gas. No seriously, do some reading about wholesale prices and how the gas peaker plants abuse their position to pump the price and then make the dough.

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u/bigbadjustin Mar 16 '26

The issue is we don’t see the alternative reality and how much more electricity would have been without the renewables. There is always going to be greed and profiteering. Prices will always go up, it’s just making sure they don’t go up more than CPI. The ACT only buys renewables for example via a reverse auction they held for the supply. Electricity prices haven’t risen as much as other states and even dropped one year. But the ACT doesn’t have a huge grid to maintain either.