Apartment living can be a barrier to solar and battery adoption. Here’s how to navigate the hurdles and practicalities

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

Australia is a world leader in household solar, but the benefits of rooftop renewables are unevenly distributed – and many of the 2.5 million people living in apartments or units are missing out.

About 39% of Australians living in detached or semi-detached houses have solar, compared with 6% of those in apartments or units, research by Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) finds. A gap also exists in the take-up of batteries, installed in 7% of houses but only in 3% of apartments or units.

Power prices are expected to fall from 1 July – but the savings, touted by Chris Bowen, won’t be passed on to many households and businesses

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

As energy companies prepare to update their electricity offers from July, some are choosing to hit households with higher fixed costs in the form of supply charges, according to reports in the ABC and Australian Financial Review.

For some, the shift could mean higher prices overall, especially for those who don’t consume much energy.

Assistant minister agrees concerns over resource usage are legitimate but argues Australia cannot ignore ‘consequential’ economic wave

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia should learn from the mistakes of the resources boom and set the terms for the AI and datacentres boom, the assistant minister for the digital economy, Andrew Charlton says.

Growth in datacentres has exploded in the past two years, Charlton told the Sydney Institute on Wednesday night, with 44 projects in the pipeline in New South Wales alone seeking 11GW of capacity on the electricity grid.

Australians are world leaders in rooftop solar and home batteries - but greater energy efficiency could make them a triple threat

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

For David and Ruth Hudspeth, the process of turning their 1950s brick veneer house in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs into a cosy, efficient and fully electric home took several years.

They started with insulation in the ceiling and replacing an old and “pretty dangerous” gas heater. They swapped their leaky hot water system for a heat pump, and built a roof over the outdoor deck for shade and extra solar panels, later adding an electric car and a home battery into the mix.

Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies

The timing was rich with symbolism. As intense heatwaves pummelled Europe and Asia, and oil markets around the world leapt and sputtered, the two big chimneys of one of Australia’s largest power stations were being demolished. Meanwhile, the Australian energy minister was holding a media conference to hail a fall of up to 10% in the benchmark electricity price in parts of the country.

Quietly, and with surprisingly little fanfare from the rest of the world, Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies. The country was already one of the global leaders in domestic solar power, with panels on one in three homes. It also remains, however, a major contributor to the climate crisis through its vast fossil fuel exports. But it is batteries that are giving Australia a new burst of speed.

Property owners’ lack of motivation due to ‘split incentive’ is main reason rental properties are missing out on energy upgrades, research finds

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Renters make up nearly a third of Australian households yet many are missing out on energy upgrades – such as insulation, appliances and rooftop solar – that could slash their power bills and improve home comfort.

The problem, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), is landlords’ lack of motivation.