Renew’s history with gas

“The new Liquefied National Gas (LNG) export market from Eastern Australia is pushing up retail prices for domestic gas, a situation expected to worsen in coming years with substantial impacts on the affordability of gas for households.” – Alternative Technology Association, Are we still cooking with gas?, 2014 

Recent years have seen a groundswell of momentum for getting homes off gas. But Renew – formerly the Alternative Technology Association – is not new to the issue. 

The ATA was founded in 1980 and for decades has represented early adopters of solar and renewables.  

Renew’s policy and research work has been pointing the way to home electrification for over a decade. The landmark 2014 report Are we still cooking with gas? demonstrated for the first time that due to rising gas prices, households could expect to save money by choosing not to connect to the gas network.  

In recent years, Renew’s original and influential research has extended the policy conversation on residential gas. The 2018 Household Fuel choice in the National Energy Market report used detailed energy and cost modelling to build the evidence base on the circumstances under which households should replace gas appliances. In 2022, Limiting energy bills by getting off gas: all-electric homes after the 2022 energy crisis presented an analysis of household energy bills and found that even though both electricity and gas prices were rising, the overall bill increase was biggest for homes connected to gas. 

Renew’s research supports the broader work of the organisation in community education and advocacy for households. Events like Sustainable House Day, Renew and Sanctuary magazines, the Green Rebuild Toolkit, and the grassroots education work of Renew branches have a decades-long track record of supporting households to live sustainably. 

The Getting Off Gas Toolkit is the latest chapter.