Learning to share the atmosphere

If you rely on certain Australian politicians and the mainstream newspapers for your energy news, you can't be blamed for thinking that, oh, renewable energy, that's what's driving our electricity prices up.

Because now for years and years we've been told this story that wind and solar are unreliable and batteries don't work and, oh, we need coal for baseload power and so on.

But listen, folks, the figures from Australia's electricity market, the facts tell a very different story.

For instance, here in the first quarter of 2026, battery systems across Australia tripled the amount of solar energy that they shifted from the middle of the day and then into the evening peak.

That's compared with a year ago.

So three times more battery electricity in the evening.

So instead of wasting all this surplus solar generation that we now have in the middle of the day, batteries are storing it and then releasing it when we out in the houses need it most in our households after sunset.

Batteries deliver up to 3,500 megawatts into the grid during the evening peak.

And what does that mean? It means that wholesale electricity prices fell by 12% nationally compared with a year ago.

Don't buy the lies that renewables make electricity more expensive.

It's a lie.

It's a hoax.

Prices fell, and that's a fact, by 12% nationally this first quarter of 26 compared to a year ago.

Here in Victoria, the story is even better.

Prices fell with 28%.

So what does that mean? That means that gas is being squeezed out.

We used to use gas generators to make sure that we had enough electricity in the evening.

We don't need that anymore.

Now we have these large-scale renewable energy battery storage and they replace gas.

So gas-fired power generation is now at its lowest level since 1999.

One in 25 Australian homes now has its own battery, and it keeps growing.

Battery capacity expanded by eight gigawatts in just the last 12 months.

It's one of the fastest growth rates anywhere in the world, and it's being noticed outside of Australia.

But somehow we can still have politicians here in this country who claim that our renewables don't work.

How do they get away with it? I really wonder.