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David McElrea

David McElrea

CEO of the Smart Energy Council (Australia); former Deputy Chief of Staff to Minister Tanya Plibersek and Chief Advocacy Officer at SEC.

Aug 5, 2026

7:23
What are we not talking about? Where do we need to see the acceleration? What are the big things that need to happen to make sure that we are capitalizing and managing this opportunity as best we can?
7:33
I think you can look at renewable energy maybe in three different bits.
7:37
Small scale or household, that has been tremendously successful in Australia, particularly over the last twelve months with the government's Cheaper Home Battery program.
7:44
But Aaron just gave the example of large scale utility, which we need more of large scale utility batteries as well, but those batteries have at least the household smooth that, that curve out in the middle of the day, so they're absorbing power, and that means you're turning off less solar during the middle of the day.
7:58
So that's going well, but it always needs more attention.
8:01
There's a missing middle, I think, in commercial and industrial where we don't have much take up.
8:07
There's a variety of reasons for that.

7 MINS LATER

15:08
So if you were to have, I guess, a wish list for the next 12 months, you know, given how quickly things are moving and the opportunity has really arrived, David, and then I'll ask you, Aaron, in, in closing, what do you want to see? What would be the three things that would make a huge difference in the next 12 months towards net zero?
1:42
But, but, but does that also take into account that if we just leave it in the ground, eventually it rots and creates methane, which, you know, in its unadulterated form, is a very potent greenhouse gas?
1:55
It, it does.
1:56
Uh, and, and there are alternatives though to treating that waste and that the...
2:02
A better way of doing it is particularly separating the sort of organic material, you know, so often like wood or, or pulp or, or, or organic material, and then putting that in and then harvesting the methane, farming the methane, and you can get about eighty-five percent.
2:16
So that's a much better way of managing that methane.
2:19
That's the technology we have now.
2:21
You can use it.
6:17
Yeah, all right.
95:03
Okay, but, but, but does that also take into account that if we just leave it in the ground, eventually it rots and creates methane, which, you know, in its unadulterated form, is a very potent greenhouse gas?
95:16
It, it does.
95:17
Uh, and, and there are alternatives though to treating that waste and that the-- a better way of doing it is particularly separating the sort of organic material, you know, so often like wood or, or pulp or, or, or organic material, and then putting that in and then harvesting the methane, farming the methane.
95:35
And you can get about eighty-five percent, so that's a much better way of managing that methane.
95:40
That's the technology we have now.
95:42
You can use it.
95:43
You, you get gas out of that, which we can use in our systems.
99:38
All right.

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