Power play – Saul Griffith’s plan to electrify everything

It’s the early 2000s and a young Aussie engineer named Saul Griffith has made his way to the prestigious MIT in the United States. He launches several startups, including one that develops the technology that eventually powers the Kindle, he even consults to NASA and the US Department of Defence.

But at the same time, the climate crisis is looming larger. Saul tells his wife that perhaps he should ditch start-up life and instead become “an eco-terrorist”. It’s said partly in jest, but next thing Saul and his wife move their young family home to regional New South Wales.

Over a few beers with friends at the local pub, Saul pitches an audacious idea: What if their post code, 2515, becomes Australia’s first fully electrified community?

So, can Saul turn this bold pub pitch into a model for the nation – and do it fast enough to save Australia’s future?

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Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios.

Saul Griffith’s books include Plug In! The Electrification Handbook, Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for a Clean Energy Future, and The Big Switch. You can find Saul on Instagram and find out more from Rewiring Australia.

Rebecca Levingston and Sarah Dabro produced this episode with editing from Amelia Navascues.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

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