Book Review: The Big Switch

Griffith has a clear agenda to change Australian politics, business and homes. This means he will write from this perspective and he may leave out information that does not align with this agenda. However, there is no evidence of gaps in what he is presenting. The amber rating for bias is influenced by the accuracy of information that also received an amber assessment.

The Big Switch is a book written by Saul Griffith. The purpose of the book is to inspire everyday Australians to make changes in their lives, to vote for climate action and to move the general public sentiment to add pressure onto policy-makers. The overall outcome Griffith is aiming for is to make Australia a world-leader in a renewable economy.

In its most simple form, the message Griffith makes is this:

    Electrify everything!

Griffith views the world through a lens of machines. On the demand and the supply side these machines need to be electrified and be run by renewable energy sources to stabilise the climate. On the supply side these machines include power plants, mines, freight rail, tankers, oil refineries, etc. On the demand side these machines include cars, planes, ovens and stoves, heaters and coolers, lights, etc.

The big switch is a switch of machines: from fossil fuel machines to renewable energy machines. And, Griffith argues, the switch needs to occur now.

Griffith proposes that while we can wait for these machines to run their course and when they break replace them with low emission and efficient machines, doing so will not keep us close to a 1.5-degree temperature rise and will send the world into an irreversible climate emergency.

The Big Switch is written for Australians. Griffith argues that Australia is the best country in the world for becoming 100% or even 200% renewable. If Australia makes more renewables that it can use, then it can export the excess to support countries that cannot produce enough to cover their populations demand.

Griffith, patriotically, argues that Australia could be the example to the rest of the world by removing fossil fuels and relying on our abundance of sun, wind and water. Unlike many countries, we do not need to consider nuclear or geothermal, because of our climate and our low population in relation to size.

Griffith is not arguing that there is not more to do, and that electrifying everything is the only possible thing to do, but rather it is the thing that will make the biggest impact on the climate crisis. By removing fossil fuels from fuelling our cars, running our homes and businesses, being exported and being embedded in our export chains, we could contribute to minimising how far above the all-critical temperature rise of 1.5-degrees the world goes. And by being a world-leader, we can show other nations how to do it.

For homeowners, heating and cooling, cooking and hot water all need to be electrified using energy-efficient technology and wherever possible solar needs to be added to roof space, electric vehicles need to be parked in driveways and batteries need to be bolted to the side of homes.

The overall story that Griffith is telling is backed by research. It is widely agreed that electrification and renewable energy is the way forward to solve climate change.

Griffith provides readers with a clear objective and focuses them on what they can do in their homes.

The book will particularly appeal to those that want to know all the data and enjoy a good graph, in particular Griffith favours a Sankey flowchart.

While some of the data Griffith references is listed in the endnotes, not all of it is and some of it, as Griffith admits is ‘plainly back of the envelope’. This lets the book down, as it is not clear when reading some of the data if it is backed by evidence, data and studies or it is based on assumptions and estimates that Griffith is making.

While the level of detail with Sankey charts, etc, may suit some, it can also start to become meaningless if you are not data-inclined. I found I couldn't always conceptualise the numbers. Also, there were times when the data led to a sense of powerlessness, as the numbers got extraordinarily large. For example, Griffith outlines the primary energy production of Australia where overall Australia produces 19,710 PJ and exports 15,910 PJ. PJ is 1015, which as a number looks like this:

19710000000000000000 J.

This appears just too overwhelmingly big to change!

Griffith also regularly moves between different energy measures such as J, MJ, PJ, kW, kw/h. Which again, if you do not have a background in engineering or physics, can become difficult to follow.

However, there are moments when Griffith is succinct and the data is displayed in a reader-friendly manner. In these moments Griffith's reasoning appears unarguable! An example is when he outlines the difference between fossil fuels and electricity for our everyday machines. He writes on page 76:

1. Making electricity with wind, solar or hydroelectricity takes one third of the energy of making electricity with fossil fuels, which wastes two thirds of their energy content.

2. An electric vehicle, regardless of size or type, will use about one third as much energy as a fossil-fuel vehicle.

3. For low-temperature heat like domestic hot water and space heating, a heat pump needs only one third to one quarter of the energy of heating the same thing with fossil fuels.

4. For high-temperature heat, induction heating needs only half to three quarters of the energy that would be required using fossil fuels.

This clarity enables the reader, who may have been confused by the numbers and the graphs, to understand exactly what the message is and how they can make changes, not to their lifestyles but to how their lifestyles are fuelled.