NSW poll goes down to the wire on energy jobs, bills

There is deep fear in coal mining and farming communities and jubilation among clean energy backers as NSW prepares to end its reliance on fossil fuels.

Ahead of the March 25 state election, frontrunner NSW Labor and the incumbent Liberal and Nationals government say moving on from the emissions-intensive past does not mean the end of mining or agriculture.

With some differences on state or private control, the major parties want to overhaul the last-century electricity grid, cut emissions from power generation and heavy industry, and support workers to retrain in new jobs.

Electrification of everything is "employment rich", Rewiring Australia executive director Dan Cass, says.

"Too often we overlook the economic deadweight of reliance on fossil fuels," Mr Cass told AAP.

There are at least three million homes in NSW that need to be rewired - an employment boom for electricians and other skilled trades.

"Those three million homes are also then liberated from the cost of fossil fuels, a financial boom for local communities," Mr Cass says.

Research last year showed electrification would deliver annual average savings of $4570 to Southern NSW households. 

Energy expert Liam Navon at solar company Smart Energy says the clean energy sector is showing no signs of slowing down and is poised to create thousands of jobs.

The uptake of renewable energy in NSW is leading the nation, he says.

One in four NSW households - 885,000 - have solar energy systems, more than any other state, according to Roy Morgan research. 

For electric car drivers, the coalition has pledged to install 30,000 chargers across NSW by 2026 if they win the election and amend strata laws so those in apartment blocks can plug in.

Over the past five years the share of wind and solar in the NSW electricity generation mix has more than tripled, and almost 200 large-scale renewable energy projects are in the pipeline.

Investor David Scaysbrook says the key will be how well the next administration can cooperate with federal government to get access to cheap capital from the Rewiring the Nation fund.

"There's a lot of that resource in NSW which is in pretty remote parts of the state," the co-founder and managing partner of energy investors Quinbrook says

"That's the most critical thing for whoever wins government - getting those dollars coming into NSW for those transmission projects."

Solar has become significantly cheaper and can be installed with energy storage systems but battery systems have not yet received the same level of backing from the government as rooftop solar. 

Smart Energy's Mr Navon says South Australia and Victoria have introduced home battery rebates over the last five years, leading to huge uptake. 

"A move like this in NSW would further drive the uptake of this technology and help homes electrify quicker and continue to support the jobs created by this new technology," he tells AAP.

Meanwhile climate-aligned independents, who could hold the balance of power, intend to squeeze the next government on fossil fuels.

Peter Wills, a cattle and cropping producer on the Liverpool Plains, says farmers were "absolutely devastated" when oil and gas firm Santos was given the go-ahead in January to enter properties without consent.

"The Liberals and National Party are simply ignoring landholder concerns about gas seam developments," he says in a Climate 200 tweet.

The deep pockets of the Climate 200 organisation have changed the make-up and thrust of federal parliament, and the group says the state needs independent climate champions in the NSW parliament.

But there is real anger west of the Great Dividing Range, where residents believe leaders are focused only on Sydney and not on their communities, according to the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

An IPA poll of 1095 voters across Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, and Upper Hunter found over half of voters (52 per cent) intend to vote for an independent or minor party.

Only one in three believed politicians when they said green jobs would replace those lost to emission reduction policies.

Electrification guru Saul Griffith is among those leading the charge on what it all means.

But the engineer and inventor has warned against "drinking the Kool-Aid" on renewable hydrogen as a commercially viable alternative fuel.

Instead, he hopes to get homes and businesses off expensive gas and harvesting more solar from their rooftops.

Dr Griffith and climate campaigner Claire O'Rourke will headline a forum on Sunday at Coledale Community Hall in the Northern Illawarra.