Now, with electric car manufacturer Tesla rolling-out household, business and utility-scale battery storage, renewables will be growing some real teeth. Teeth that will tear apart the traditional economic model of poles ‘n’ wires.  Teeth that households can use to chew off their umbilical cord to coal and gas fired power stations.

The catch is, there’ll be those households who can and those who can’t. The conservative governments might not be able to stop the renewable revolution, but they have been making it as hard as they can for some people to get on board by making it unaffordable. Stripping away rebates and paying peanuts for feed-in tariffs the power households can sell back, has meant the investment and break-even point for roof solar systems has become a step too far for many people.

Meanwhile, as solar panels and battery storage costs become competitive with grid connection, households who are able to make the investment will more than likely free themselves from the grid as soon as they can. They’ll be scooping up the flow-on benefits of the renewable revolution, such as electric cars fuelled at zero cost. On the other hand the rest of the community, low-income households and people who rent, will be left plugged into the grid and paying more than their fair share to keep it propped up.

Of course this threat to the revenue base might well make the idea of leasing those good ol’ poles ‘n’ wires far less attractive for private investors. The poles ’n’ wires copped another body blow from the Australian Energy Regulator the other day in a short-sighted attempt to reduce costs of production. Yes you guessed it, approximately 3,350 jobs will disappear from the state's electricity grid. And what does the average household get to justify this sacrificing of local jobs, let alone reliability and safety? An average of a couple of hundred dollars a year – for now.

None of it makes sense. Standing in the way of the renewable revolution is futile, wasteful, unfair and damaging for our future. The new technology offers unprecedented opportunities to generate jobs and reduce energy bills. It offers limitless possibilities for the state's economic future and for the community to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The answer has got to be in keeping the grid public and working towards the whole community riding the renewable energy bow wave.