Ian Verender

It comes from the sun.

Whereas a coal-fired generator, you've got to build this massive steam engine, essentially.

You've got to dig up the coal.

You've got to burn it through.

There's a cost that isn't calculated, which is the cost of the damage to the environment.

Whereas with renewables, a lot of those costs are just not there.

It's much cheaper to build solar farms than it is to build a coal generator.

And much, much cheaper than nuclear power.

So there's no doubt that it's cheaper.

But what's happened...

I guess in Australia, we're in a very unique position here where we're kind of at ground zero in this whole ideological battle over climate change and electricity generation because Australians have taken to solar power like no other country in the world.

Now, you know, something like one in three, one in four households, around about four million households have solar panels on the roof.

And until pretty much, well, the numbers I saw dated to July last year, very few Australian households had batteries because for a long time, the numbers just didn't really stack up.

You're going to spend all this money on a battery.

How long is it going to take you to recoup the cost?

Doesn't, nah, it's too expensive.

So the government's idea to put this 30% subsidy on batteries happened to coincide with a dramatic collapse in the price of batteries as well.

So battery prices have actually dropped by 99% since the 1990s.

And the price is still falling.

Because of scale, they're all being made in China.