Having served as chair of ARENA’s board for two previous terms, Punch has overseen significant growth at ARENA, and has been instrumental in the development of key funding programs including Hydrogen Headstart and Community Batteries Round 1.

Related article: Alinga’s Ruby Heard on equity through energy

Ruby Heard and Dr Dean Travers are joining the ARENA board for the first time.

Heard is a descendent of the Jaru people of the Kimberley, an electrical engineer and founding director of Alinga Energy Consulting, providing energy research services with a focus on affordable and sustainable off-grid systems to improve the livelihoods for Indigenous communities, and brings considerable experience in the building services and energy space.

Dr Travers has more than 25 years of experience in the energy sector across global markets in mergers and acquisitions, deal structuring, project development and operations and maintenance. He has worked across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia to develop conventional and renewable energy projects for global energy firms.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller welcomed Heard and Travers to the board, saying their experience and expertise in the energy sector will enhance its existing board and guide ARENA as it facilitates the clean energy transition.

“The ARENA board is gaining some incredible talent in Ms Heard and Dr Travers,” he said.

“ARENA is committed to ensuring First Nations People are at the forefront of the energy transition and Ms Heard’s work as Director of Alinga Energy Consulting and on the Steering Committee of the First Nations Clean Energy Network will provide an invaluable perspective for our work.”

“Dr Travers brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in working on renewable energy projects around the world that will not only help with ARENA funded projects, but also open up global collaboration opportunities,” Mr Miller said.

ARENA’s Board has overall responsibility for the operations of the agency. It is a skills-based decision-making body, responsible for recommending the Agency’s annual general funding strategy to the Minister, setting investment priorities, overseeing the running of the organisation and approving project funding.

Related article: Darren Miller reappointed for third term as ARENA CEO

ARENA also thanks its outgoing board members, Anna Matysek and John Hirjee, who have both served on ARENA’s Board for two terms.

“I’d like to thank Anna and John for their time and contributions to ARENA. Their skills and expertise along the way have helped pave the way forward for us. I wish them well in their next endeavours.” Mr Miller said.

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Done well, the renewable energy transition should improve the lives of First Nations Australians. Many are looking for ways to stay on Country, use their knowledge of Country and contribute to industries that align with their values.

Large-scale renewable energy projects and mines for critical minerals are often sited on lands with First Nations legal rights. Access arrangements should provide direct benefits to communities.

The clean energy sector also promises new employment opportunities in regional and remote areas.

We examined the barriers to increasing First Nations employment in clean energy, as well as the opportunities and solutions. Our new report, released today, makes 12 recommendations based on data analysis, modelling, interviews and workshops.

Here’s how industry, government, educators and First Nations communities can create jobs and fulfilling careers in clean energy.

Related article: Alinga’s Ruby Heard on equity through energy

Closing the gap

There is a large, persistent gap between employment rates for First Nations Australians and non-Indigenous Australians.

About half of all First Nations Australians are employed. Compare that to almost two in three people in the wider population.

In September 2023, the Commonwealth government’s employment white paper noted the gap has “not closed notably” over the past 30 years. That’s despite waves of regional development including mining booms. Unfortunately, those First Nations people who do enter the workforce also often become stuck in short-term, low-paid casual roles.

Currently, relatively low numbers of First Nations Australians are working in clean energy.
Systemic disadvantage limits the opportunities available to First Nations Australians, particularly those living in regional and remote Australia.

Low literacy, numeracy and computer skills, poor access to relevant training, social and health issues, and a lack of transport to work and training are some of the main barriers.

Opportunities in renewable energy zones

Clusters of large-scale renewable energy projects are being developed in “renewable energy zones” across Australia.

On average, First Nation Australians make up a higher proportion of the population in renewable energy zones (6.2%) than Australia as a whole (3.8%).

This is especially true in major zones such as New England (9.4%) and Central-West Orana (12.7%) in New South Wales.

We investigated the scope for First Nations employment in renewable energy zones across South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

We found three main groups of First Nations people could potentially find work in the renewable energy zones:

1. Other workers in key occupations

First Nations Australians are working in other sectors in occupations also in demand for renewable energy projects. The number of these workers equates to around 5–10% of the projected workforce in most renewable energy zones.

However, our analysis of census data found existing workers are concentrated in a handful of lower-skill occupations, such as truck drivers and construction labourers. Currently, there are few First Nations workers with the right skills. For example, just 87 electricians identify as First Nations Australians across all the renewable energy zones we examined.

2. School students

Based on census data, more than half the First Nations people in renewable energy zones are aged under 19. Programs that create awareness and interest in the renewable energy sector and build training pathways for students into renewables should be a priority.

3. Unemployed people and those not in the workforce

A handful of solar farms have hired First Nations people who were unemployed—usually in entry-level positions such as assembling solar panels, cleaning or traffic control.

Avonlie solar farm in Narrandera, NSW, hired 30 First Nations workers after putting them through pre-employment training. About 90% have gone on to other jobs afterwards. The social impact was transformational for a community with multiple generations of families who have never worked.

These projects are rare now, but this approach could be adopted elsewhere.

Our analysis shows First Nations employment targets of 5-10% in the renewable energy zones are currently challenging, but possible over time—especially if industry and government programs are implemented to create training and employment opportunities.

Related article: First Nations people must be at the forefront of Australia’s renewable energy revolution

A 12-point plan for more First Nations jobs in clean energy

Training programs without concrete commitments from industry to providing a job at the end of it often become “training for training’s sake”. We found deep cynicism among First Nations people about whether the renewables sector would really deliver jobs for them.

Mandated employment targets can create demand for First Nations workers. But for industry to meet the targets requires having enough people with the right skills.
Our 12-point plan recommends a mix of “supply” measures (such as training) and “demand” measures (industry job commitments), such as:

• mandatory First Nations employment targets for solar farms combined with pre-employment programs to create a pipeline of candidates. Solar farm jobs are short-term (four to six months) but they can leave a positive legacy if they offer a way out of unemployment
• a coordinated program with wind farm operators for First Nations mechanical technicians to maintain turbines over their 20-year operating lifetime, to ease skills shortages and create long-term jobs on Country
• combining First Nations employment requirements in tenders for companies delivering Indigenous housing retrofits with training programs to create a pipeline of students for apprenticeships in key trades
• clean energy cadet programs that include commitments to a 10-year intake of First Nations students as cadets for university-qualified jobs, with government funding for specialist providers such as CareerTrackers to create, mentor and support a pipeline of students
• funding to help First Nations organisations engage with the clean energy sector, governments and other groups such as training bodies
• creating culturally safe workplaces in the renewable energy sector that provide career paths for First Nations Australians. This should include a focus on the development of cultural competency as well as internal policies that accommodate First Nations cultural obligations.

The long stagnation in First Nations employment rates across the past three decades highlights the challenges involved.

However, a First Nations clean energy jobs plan developed and implemented by industry, government and First Nations communities is essential if we are to ensure renewable energy delivers jobs for First Nations Australians—and breaks with the past.

Disclosure statement: The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Study received funding from the First Nations Clean Energy Network to produce the report upon which this article is based. The report was produced by ISF, SGS Economics, Alinga Energy Consulting and Indigenous Energy Australia. Ruby Heard is a descendant of the Jaru people of the Kimberley, an electrical engineer and founding director of Alinga Energy Consulting. She receives funding from the Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund, and Energy Consumers Australia. She is a member of the First Nations Clean Energy Network Steering Committee.

Republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons

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“I had a lot of positive experiences with electricity while I was growing up that helped me choose electrical and electronic engineering as my undergraduate degree,” Ruby Heard explains.

“One of my first responsibilities around the house was to change the fuses in the switchboard. My dad was a Telecom technician, and he taught me how to find the burnt-out fuse and re-wire the device, and how to identify if a circuit breaker had tripped. He also showed me how to switch off the power, which I used to my advantage when my sisters wouldn’t give me my turn on the computer.”

Heard’s interest in electronics continued during her school years. When she reached Year 10, she picked up the A-Z book of jobs in careers class.

“Not knowing what I wanted to be, I started at A and read about every occupation that existed. I never read another page after Engineer. I just knew that’s what I was. The decision to go electrical came from my passion for the environment and my understanding that everything required electricity and that it was predominately produced by the burning of fossil fuels, which was having negative impacts on the planet,” she says.

Related article: First Nations people must be at the forefront of Australia’s renewable energy revolution

Bright beginnings

After graduating university, Heard began her career with Arup, working both in Australia and the US.

“Arup was amazing. It was like a big, supportive family,” she says.

“I felt privileged to be working with such bright people to design iconic buildings both here in Australia and overseas. Working in the United States was a big highlight because it allowed me to really pursue my passion of working in the renewable energy space.

“In California I got to work on very complicated building-integrated PV (BIPV) systems and microgrid options for Google campuses. I was the lead energy engineer working on the Google Mountain View campus project, where I looked at separating NASA-owned energy assets from Google assets (their new tenant). I explored a microgrid to increase their resiliency against grid power outage and I investigated options for medium-voltage distribution routes around the Moffet Airfield. I was given the freedom to experiment with Python programming to calculate the generation potential of cutting-edge BIPV on airfield hangars that Google wanted to convert into office space.”

While she relished the experience and opportunities, Heard says working for a large consultancy never really felt like the best fit for her.

“I was a bit of a round peg in a square hole. I was finding that renewable energy projects weren’t fulfilling me in the way I thought they would. A pro-bono project helped me understand what was missing. I worked with a legal non-profit that assisted homeless or at-risk people, which is a major issue in San Francisco. The staff were working in an old building without heating or cooling, suffering throughout the year and tripping out circuit breakers by overloading the switchboard with space heaters. Working with the building occupants to address a real issue was the missing element of my work—the human element. Making a difference for people in need. That was far more fulfilling to me than helping tech giants save money on their electricity bill.”

Working in Ethiopia

After leaving Arup, Heard volunteered in refugee camps in Ethiopia through Engineers Without Borders. Their role was to support the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) energy team to train groups of refugees across five camps to become solar power technicians.

“We did this by walking them through the design and installation of a solar mini-grid for the health centre in each camp,” Heard explains.

“Before having solar, the doctors could only afford to run their generator for a few hours a week. They delivered babies at night using the flashlights on their phones, and they weren’t able to use life-saving equipment such as oxygen machines.

“What I learned in Ethiopia is hard to put words to—partly because it was so much and so deep and partly because I’m sure I’m not even fully aware of the profound impacts that experience had on me as a person.

“I definitely learned resilience. Two weeks into my stint the lead trainer left unexpectedly and did not return. I had to take over leading the minigrid installations myself with no experience in the actual installation of solar power systems. I was also influenced by the resilience of the local people who had fled war-torn Somalia and seen horrific violence, but were warm and caring and peaceful despite the tragedy.

“I learned to live with a lot less thanks to twice-daily power outages, limited activities, patchy Wi-Fi and very unreliable phone service. But I learned gratitude for what I had in Ethiopia and the unlimited access to things we take for granted in developed countries. I remember almost crying when I went to a supermarket in Kenya after three months in the camps. ‘You have everything!’ I excitedly said to a cashier. I celebrated my 30th birthday in those camps, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

Heard’s experience in Ethiopia and her Indigenous heritage now drives her to advocate for an equitable energy transition, particularly for First Nations people living in remote communities.

“My experience in Ethiopia led me to thinking about the lack in remote Indigenous communities in Australia and I quickly realised addressing energy insecurity for First Nations people was my calling,” she says.

Working with First Nations communities

“Remote First Nations communities continue to struggle with energy access and affordability. While the industry focuses on decarbonising the National Electricity Market, many don’t realise that we have Indigenous communities burning thousands of litres of diesel a day for their power supply. Communities I have worked with in the Kimberley can use over 1,000L of diesel a day to power just 35 homes.

“Renewable energy has been the economically superior option for years now but there are hundreds of remote communities out there that don’t have a single solar panel. Households don’t have the option of rooftop solar to reduce their electricity bills and lower their carbon emissions, and centralised systems have been avoided due to lack of capital. Meanwhile, government departments and government-owned utilities lose millions of dollars a year to run and maintain the diesel supply.

“Diesel generation also presents other issues in community, such as the impact on air quality, noise pollution, and low resiliency. Many Indigenous communities in the Top End and central Australia experience seasonal flooding, which can completely cut off road access to the communities for weeks. When this happens, diesel needs to be flown in by helicopter.”

Pre-payment metering is also problematic for continuous supply of an essential service, Heard explains.

“Households need to purchase credit to have their power on. For many communities, their older system requires a physical card to be purchased at the community store and loaded manually on to the meter outside the house. If the shop is shut when the credit runs out, they will either be without power or need to ask neighbours if they have a spare power card at home. Sometimes a neighbour may throw an extension lead over or leave on an outside light to help out.

“A key concern of this outcome is loss of refrigeration, which leads to spoiled food and medications. On top of this, housing in remote communities tends to be low-quality and aged. The poor thermal performance combined with long periods of hot, humid weather mean households require more energy to stay at liveable and safe temperatures,” she says.

“The transition to distributed clean energy has a lot of benefits for remote Indigenous communities, but there are barriers in place that mean our people are being left behind and left out. A lot of my work focuses on solving these complex problems for our communities. It’s also why I sit on the steering committee of the First Nations Clean Energy Network and have focused my PhD research at Melbourne University around this same topic.”

Establishing Alinga

In 2018, Heard founded Alinga Energy Consulting, which provides services to clients in Australia and the Pacific. Alinga’s mission is to address energy inequity impacting vulnerable peoples.

“We have been achieving this goal through many different projects. I have worked to improve billing practices in over-50s living villages where residents’ solar exports were sold on to other customers, earning profit for the embedded network operator,” Heard says.

“We have completed energy feasibility studies for five communities in Western Australia that demonstrate cost reductions for households as well as the utility, and a potential for huge emissions savings. I have assessed dozens of proposals for off-grid energy projects in Papua New Guinea, evaluating their technical soundness and social impact and sustainability.

“Most recently we have moved into the housing energy efficiency space, working with Aboriginal Housing Providers to define best practice and support pilots to improve existing Indigenous housing across Australia,” Heard says.

“I’m also very proud of the pro-bono and low-bono work we’ve been able to do, which has included looking at getting CERES to 100% renewable energy, assisting an Indigenous bush tucker farm with the design and securing of funding for a solar-plus-battery system to reduce their large bills, and solar design work for a health centre in Yarrabah Community, which is still in progress.”

Achieving an equitable transition

The biggest challenge to an equitable energy transition here in Australia, Heard says, is that equity is not the core value of the energy industry.

“While energy is considered an essential service, we don’t take an approach that prioritises equitable distribution and a fair share of benefits and burdens. Our energy system is more capitalist in nature, driven by markets and lowest cost solutions,” she explains.

“Like many unpleasant things in modern society, we have completely removed the end user from the production of a resource. A relatable example is meat production. Just like how people living in cities never need to see the animals, the feed-lots or the processing of their final product, most people also don’t see the mining, the power plants and the pollution that charges their phone. The inequities are not visible.

“The other key issue is that we are doing far too little to address waste and irresponsible use of power. Our system says if you have the money to pay for it, you can use as much as you like. The messages that our governments are sending us is that the energy industry must now enable all energy users to continue to use as much power as they want by rapidly deploying renewable energy technologies at a potentially unachievable scale and pace.

“There is a huge cost to this strategy. An economic cost that ultimately the consumer/citizen always pays whether through taxes, energy prices or passed along in the cost of goods; an environmental cost that the planet and future generations pay; and a liberties cost that impacts regional REZ communities, developing countries and remote Australia. I would like to see our government begin to regulate consumption by putting pressure on certain industries and practices such as planned obsolescence, fast fashion and consumption-promoting marketing.”

And while the government must lead this step change, Heard says the energy sector must also adopt a more holistic approach to addressing climate issues.

“We cannot solve the climate problem by creating a waste problem. But that is where we will end up if we continue to rapidly deploy huge amounts of non-recyclable solar panels and wind turbine blades. We have been aware that our fossil fuel usage could lead to global warming for around a hundred years, but we have spent all our renewables R&D money on reducing cost of resource-intensive renewables rather than developing truly sustainable, circular economy solutions,” she says.

Related article: ARENA backs First Nations hydrogen ambitions

Future plans

Looking to the future, and how Alinga might respond to the needs of Australia’s energy transition, Heard says she hopes the business will grow organically.

“At the moment I rely on other small businesses, many of them also Indigenous-led, to put together teams that have all the skills to deliver energy feasibility and advisory projects. I would like to see my team grow to include other First Nations people and to be able to take on and train interns and graduates.

“I can see myself eventually moving into academia to support the next generation of engineers. I come from two generations of teachers and have a passion for passing on knowledge. But I could equally see myself moving out of the energy space and focusing on other areas of interest such as traditional healing methodologies and herbalism.

“I guess in some ways I’m working hard to solve part of the energy puzzle and put myself out of a job.”

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