POWER OF IMAGINATION in a world on edge

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The Sustainable Hour no. 584 | Transcript | Podcast notes

Our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 1 April 2026 are Stretch Kontelj, Mayor of the City of Greater Geelong, and Ro O’Reilly, an inventor and team leader at Project Greenlift.

In this week’s episode, the conversation moves between hard climate realities, bold innovation and the power of imagination – all anchored in one central question: how do we accelerate the green transition in a world that still hesitates?

. . .

A WORLD ON EDGE
Mik Aidt and Colin Mockett OAM open the Hour with stark reminders of the escalating climate crisis. From destructive storms in Australia to record-breaking heatwaves in the United States, the signs are everywhere – and intensifying. Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, more severe and more costly, and the scientific attribution is now clear: fossil fuel emissions are driving these events.

Yet, Australian media coverage continues to avoid connecting the dots. And at the same time, global instability in fossil fuel supply highlights a deeper vulnerability: our dependence on oil and gas.

As Mik points out, solutions already exist

Morocco is building massive solar infrastructure for energy independence
Uruguay runs nearly entirely on renewable electricity
Denmark and Norway are leading the transition to electric vehicles
EVs are already removing millions of barrels of oil demand daily

The conclusion is simple but urgent: electrify everything and power it with renewables.

. . .

GLOBAL OUTLOOK
This week’s news bulletin by Colin reinforces the scale of change underway.

A “heat dome” across the United States is pushing temperatures to unprecedented March levels
Climate change has made such events far more likely and more intense
India’s recent election unfolded under deadly heatwave conditions, yet climate barely featured politically

The disconnect between lived reality and political discourse remains one of the defining challenges of our time. And yet, a small note of optimism appears in unexpected places, including the continued rise of sustainability-driven initiatives, even in sport. You can read the full bulletin in the transcript.

. . .

REIMAGINING ENERGY IN GEELONG
Our first guest is Geelong Mayor Stretch Kontelj who brings an announcement about a new initiative aiming to transform how energy is generated and distributed across the city.

The concept is simple in principle, yet ambitious in scope. Solar energy is harvested from large rooftops and then transmitted wirelessly across short distances, pointing towards a future where energy can be shared across a decentralised, city-wide network.

The ambition behind it is striking. It aims to reduce reliance on external energy sources, lower operational costs for the council, and potentially position locally developed technology as something that could be exported to cities around the world.

If realised, it would represent a fundamental shift in how cities think about energy systems – from centralised grids to distributed, connected networks.

. . .

INNOVATION IN MOTION: PROJECT GREENLIFT
Our second guest, Ro O’Reilly, introduces Project Greenlift – an Australian-led innovation in transport and disaster response.

At its core is a revival of “ground effect” technology – a concept where aircraft-like vehicles fly just above the surface of the water. In this zone, they can achieve up to 50 per cent greater efficiency than conventional aircraft, allowing them to move goods and people at high speeds while using significantly less energy.

The potential applications are considerable. Such vehicles could enable rapid disaster response in areas cut off by floods or fires, provide low-cost logistics for remote communities, and reduce the need for expensive infrastructure such as roads and airports.The vision is both practical and humanitarian – focused on accessibility, resilience and efficiency.

People wanting to join Project Greenlift’s mission to support people in natural disasters and provide low cost logistics for remote communities can bring this sustainable transport technology into being by donating to the kickstarter crowdfunding campaign which starts on 15 April 2026 on www.kickstarter.com

Here’s some interesting info on the benefits of the Cicada222 craft

If you’d like more details about this initiative, you can contact Ro on info@projectgreenlift.com.au or go to:

Website: lowflightgem.com
Instagram: @projectgreenlift
Facebook: www.fb.com/ProjectGreenlift

. . .

CULTURAL SHIFT from CONSUMPTION to CONNECTION
This episode also explores a deeper transformation – not just technological, but cultural.

A powerful reflection by Frank Holleman challenges the idea that sustainability is about sacrifice. Instead, it suggests that consuming less can actually lead to greater freedom, that living more locally can strengthen community, and that the notion of a “good life” can be redefined beyond material growth.

Rather than focusing narrowly on individual carbon accounting, the emphasis shifts towards living more meaningfully, reducing our dependence on extractive systems, and creating space for connection and care.

. . .

MUSIC AND MOMENTUM
Three original songs reinforce the themes of the episode:

‘The Green Transition’ – a call to act now, not later
‘Growing Houses, Growing Hope’ – a vision of regenerative and innovative living
‘EV Smile’ – the everyday joy and practicality of electrification

→ More music from The Sustainable Hour on www.climatesafety.info/music

. . .

BOTTOM LINE
This episode moves between realism and possibility. The crises are real – visible, measurable and accelerating. But so are the solutions. We live in a time that is scary and exciting at the same time.

Renewable energy is scaling globally. Electrification is reducing fossil fuel demand. Innovation is opening new pathways, and cultural change is beginning to take root.

The challenge is no longer whether change is possible, but how quickly we choose to make it happen.

So, be innovative! – but also: be good!

“Our plan for our day job is we want to reinvigorate the river systems, river trade, and by having this ability to jump over dams, bridges, we can access entire river systems that join to the sea and therefore make much lower cost logistics systems for small remote communities, which is a big deal.”
~ Ro O’Reilly, inventor and team leader at Project Greenlift

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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wadawurrung People. We pay our respects to their elders – past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

The traditional custodians lived in harmony with the land for millennia, nurturing it and thriving in often harsh conditions. Their connection to the land was deeply spiritual and sustainable. This land was invaded and stolen from them. It was never ceded. Today, it is increasingly clear that if we are to survive the climate emergency we face, we must learn from their land management practices and cultural wisdom.

True climate justice cannot be achieved until Australia’s First Nations people receive the justice they deserve. When we speak about the future, we must include respect for those yet to be born, the generations to come. As the old saying reminds us: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” It is deeply unfair that decisions to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t live to face the worst impacts, leaving future generations to bear the burden of their inaction.

“The Indigenous worldview has been marginalised for generations because it was seen as antiquated and unscientific and its ethics of respect for Mother Earth were in conflict with the industrial worldview. But now, in this time of climate change and massive loss of biodiversity, we understand that the Indigenous worldview is neither unscientific nor antiquated, but is, in fact, a source of wisdom that we urgently need.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, weallcanada.org

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Project Greenlight and Cicada 222

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“Focus on becoming less consumer, and more community”

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How we can take back control of energy prices

Dinah Arndt, Head of Strategic Communications at Climate Counci, wrote in a newsletter on 31 March 2026:

“Andrew Forrest is investing billions of dollars to prove his point. This is no Pauline or Matt Canavan; it is a businessman putting his money where his mouth is. As many others are. And while it is true that Gina Rinehart, who finances the climate denial sector, is also big in iron ore, let’s follow the money.

Forrest’s main income derives from iron ore. Yes, he does have gas interests, but Gina, in comparison, has iron ore, gas and coal. When she talks down renewables, she is ‘talking her own book’. Forrest reckons he can completely decarbonise his enormous iron ore mines in the Pilbara by 2030, just four years away. He even says it can be done more quickly, and with the cost of fuel surging thanks to the Iran War, urgency is a thing.”

→ Michael West – 31 March 2026:
Climate Wars. Iran war speeds transition to renewable energy
“Despite the avalanche of fossil propaganda, decarbonisation is happening, and the Iran War will only speed it up. Michael West reports.”

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TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 584

Antonió Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General: (00:00)
Cooperation over chaos. We are all in this together.

Jingle: (00:02)
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.

Tony Gleeson: (00:25)
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. We’d like to acknowledge that we’re broadcasting from the land of the Wadawurrung people. We pay tribute to their elders – past, present and those that will earn that great honour in the future. We’re broadcasting from stolen land, land that was never ceded, and we continually try to emphasise the importance of benefiting from the ancient wisdom that they acquired from nurturing both their land and their communities for millennia before their land was stolen. And that’s our fervent wish that we all move in that direction to survive the climate crisis, which is well and truly amongst us.

News reader at ABC News on 28 March 2026 at 17:15: (01:17)
Wave heights of 5.7 metres were recorded in Sydney in the early hours of this morning. While at Thirroul, large waves have surged up to the carpark, dumping sand on footpaths and ramps and damaging parts of the walkway and stairs. Elsewhere, wild winds have been wreaking havoc. The SES has responded to hundreds of…

News reporter at ABC News on 28 March 2026, about the Exmouth cyclone damage:
It’s difficult to describe the scale of the damage here, pretty much everything’s been sort of ripped to shreds. Nothing is where it should be. Roofs have been ripped from homes. Even the evacuation center had part of its roof…

Mik Aidt: (01:49)
Wild weather is getting more damaging and costly and it’s on the news all the time these days. And we’ve known for decades that this is our own fault. It’s our burning of fossil fuels that’s causing these record-breaking devastating wild weather events. However, not a single Australian news broadcaster has bothered or thought that they should inform us, the Australian people, about that.

News reader at ABC News on 28 March 2026: (02:19)
Some videos circulating on social media of some people filling up their jerry cans with fuel at petrol stations. The Prime Minister was very clear, please do not do that. Really the government’s main focus here is all about shoring up supply as you’ve seen from…

Mik: (02:36)
And now that we have a problem with fossil fuels and the media is finally talking about fossil fuels, actually a lot about it, because of the problems we have with the war in the Middle East and our supplies running low and prices going up, well, I hear a lot of complaining, but very little talk about that, hey, we could have avoided a situation like this, like other countries are actually doing Morocco, for instance, a country that used to import 97 per cent of its energy, now they’re building the world’s largest solar complex in the desert. Why? Because they want energy independence, energy security.

Or Uruguay, which is a country of 3.5 million people. They now run 99 per cent on renewables for their electricity, which means they’re beginning to export their surplus to the neighbouring countries. That’s energy security. Or Brazil, which is a country of 215 million people. They’re getting close to 90 per cent renewable electricity, which is the same in Denmark. 92 per cent renewables. And in Denmark now, like in Norway, 95 per cent of all new vehicles that are sold are EVs, electric vehicles. So don’t tell me it can’t be done.

It’s happening in countries out there. So why isn’t it happening here in Australia? We could have done it too and we can still do it. Last year, mind you, EVs removed around 2 million barrels of oil demand every single day. 2 million barrels that don’t need to be drilled and shipped and refined and burned any longer because we now have EVs driving around.

And that was last year. It will be even more this year. Which means less pollution in the air, fewer climate wrecking emissions entering the atmosphere, and less exposure to these volatile global oil markets. More control to us. Control staying close to the households and the communities. It is the only responsible and logical thing to do.

We have to electrify everything and generate the electricity with renewables. Why isn’t this the topic that the media is talking about? How do we speed up the green transition? That’s the only thing we should be talking about, Today in The Sustainable Hour, we will be talking about different aspects of The Green Transition, the innovation that’s so necessary. But first, The Sustainable Hours special global news bulletin with Colin Mockett OAM.

COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK: (05:31)
Our roundup this week begins in the United States, where news has been thin on the ground lately, mainly due to the US media’s obsession with the Iran war. But it could no longer ignore the record-breaking heatwaves that are currently scorching the western states of America, from the Pacific coast to the Rockies, which scientists have described as would have been virtually impossible if not for the climate crisis. An estimated 10 million Americans are baking under unseasonably hot and dangerous weather at the moment, with temperatures consistently in the mid-40s centigrade, which is up to 17°C degrees centigrade above average for this time of the year.

According to a new international study, the American heat waves are driven by a strong, slow-moving high-pressure system called a heat dome, which stretches across parts of Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona. The analysis squarely blames the burning of fossil fuels as making this kind of heat wave four times more likely to occur during the past decade.

These temperatures are completely off the scale for March, said the analysis co-author Ben Clark, who is an extreme weather and climate change researcher at Imperial College London. Even as recently as 2016, the current heat wave would have been milder, with temperatures less than a degree cooler, according to figures quoted from World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of climate researchers.

“These findings leave no room for doubt,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist professor at Imperial College, who also worked on the study. “Climate change is pushing weather into extremes that would have been unthinkable in a pre-industrial world,” she said. To carry out their rapid analysis, the scientists examined forecasts for a five-day period from the 18th to the 22nd of March.

To quantify the impact of global warming on that week’s extreme temperatures, the researchers analysed weather and forecast data and used climate model simulations to compare how heat events have changed today’s weather patterns. The report said that the heat dome, fuelled by an area of high pressure in the atmosphere, had shattered temperature records in 140 cities stretching from California to Missouri, while leaving Nevada and Arizona under what was termed as extreme heat warnings, that’s outside the dome.

And the study’s analysis shows that more heat is installed for the region in the coming days. The mercury is expected to continue ticking upwards in the southwest and the heat wave is expected to creep towards the south.

They’re the other way round to us because they’re coming into summer. So it’s an unusual heatwave for this time of the year, but they’re coming into their hot weather. By the end of this week, first week of April, 100 US cities could set an all-time temperature record for the month of March, the study forecasted.

So now to India, where earlier this month, Narendra Modi’s BJP party won the Indian general election, securing their third consecutive term in office. Though they failed to win a majority in the lower house of the Indian parliament, the election took place during a fatal heatwave, which news reports there said is becoming more common in India due to global warming.

Yet surprisingly, despite India being one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, climate issues were barely mentioned during the election. The focus then was elsewhere on issues like employment, unemployment, taxes, inflation and Hindu nationalism. However, this is not because Indian voters don’t care about climate change. They can’t ignore it. They are, after all, on the front line of its impact.

Politically, environmental issues are often mixed into other issues surrounding India’s development, rather than talked about explicitly. But experts say that the heat wave had a clear impact on the campaign trial and the election’s result. Numerous candidates fainted while queuing voters and campaigners fell ill from the heat. Some polling staff even died as afternoon events were cancelled due to the extreme heat when they were out in the open at polling booths.

There are now talks about moving future elections in India to February and March to avoid the worst of the conditions. And yet, despite all this, climate change was hardly mentioned in the election campaigns.

India is surrounded by oceans on three sides and it has the Himalayas to its north. This makes it especially vulnerable to rising sea levels, severe storms and floods, melting glaciers and droughts. According to world weather attribution, global warming makes heat waves in the region 30 times more likely than they were last century.

Currently already climate change is causing the loss of livelihoods, displacement and the deterioration of living conditions. Last year’s cyclone season on India’s East Coast was the deadliest in recent times. It killed 523 people and caused 2.5 billion US dollars worth of damage. Since the 1980s, there’s been a 50 per cent increase in the number of cyclones.

Flooding has increased three-fold in that period, disrupting fishermen’s livelihoods. And in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, heavy rain and floods killed 428 people and caused $1.42 billion of damage this season alone.

Now after all that, you can’t call it anything else, after all that misery, it’s good to finally report on the world’s greenest sports team, Forest Green Rovers, who play football in the English National League too. The Rovers defeated Wealdstone 2-0 at the weekend, leaving them still in sixth place on the ladder. They currently 10 points behind Carlisle in a promotion position.

Meanwhile, the Forest Green Rovers women’s team didn’t play last weekend, so they remain on 23 points from nine games, while their lead leaders, Torquay United, have 34 points from 12 games. Now with teams getting three points for a win and one for a draw, it’s looking like being a very tight finish at the top for the women’s Southwest Region Premier League. And that small piece of good news ends our round up for the week.

Jingle (13:33)
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.

Tony: (13:36)
We pride ourselves here at The Sustainable Hour in being up with the latest. Now, we’ve got a groundbreaking initiative that Geelong Council, City of Greater Geelong Council, have a look in the process of launching, and they’re partnering up with Deakin University and we’ve got the Mayor on – so, Stretch Kontelj – to come in and tell us and he looks like one excited mare at the moment. Stretch, thanks for coming on!

Stretch Kontelj, Geelong Mayor: (14:11)
Yeah, thank you very much, Tony and gentlemen for having me on. Very excited. I’m so pleased that you’ve invited me on because I have really some quite world breaking news here. Now, as you know, we’re a city of Unesco City of Design. So everything that we do in the city has to filter through that framework.

And what we’ve been working on is trying to find a way for the city to become self-sustaining when it comes to energy. So we’ve been working in a very confidential way with Deakin University and the CSIRO to try to come up with innovative ways of harvesting solar energy in this particular instance and looking at how we can power facilities that are under the control of the City of Greater Geelong.

And as you know we’ve got the magnificent Geelong Convention Centre that is opening up in July, which has a huge roof span and we’ve installed solar panels right across the length and breadth of that Convention Centre and through the collaboration with Deakin and CSIRO we’ve come up with a new development which we’re calling the G-Power Initiative, which is a Wi-Fi based way of harvesting solar power and using Wi-Fi to then run machinery that’s nearby to that facility. And in this instance, this trial, which commenced on the 31st of March and will conclude today at midnight, is we’re going to run the carousel down on the waterfront solely through the use of this power source.

Colin: (16:07)
Right, so have I got it right that there aren’t any panels on the carousel? You will be harvesting the power, the electrical power, from the convention centre without any wires. You’ll just use Wi-Fi to bring it to the carousel. Is that right?

Stretch: (16:30)
That’s right, like a Bluetooth. That’s probably the easy way for people who are listening to understand that there’ll be no wires. There’ll simply be a connection that will be made through an application and the carousel will be powered solely by this Wi-Fi that’s being generated through solar power harvested from the roof of the convention center. So if listeners go down today, they’ll see the carousel functioning in its normal way, and there’ll be nothing to tell you that the power that is running it is being generated from the rooftop of the convention centre and then beamed down to the carousel via a Bluetooth, sort of Wi-Fi technology.

Colin: (17:19)
It’s a bit like when you’re charging your phone by not actually plugging it in but you put it close by.

Stretch: (17:28)
That’s right, exactly right.

Colin: (17:30)
So we’re doing that with the solar panels on the roof of the Convention Centre?

Stretch: (17:36)
Yep, that’s right. We’re the first government in the world, as far as I understand, to use this technology. We’ve had to keep it under wraps because of intellectual property that we’ve had to secure in relation to this technology. We haven’t been able to share this until now. But now that we’ve got everything in place, as far as the legal protection is concerned, we’ve now announced it and your listeners are the first to hear of this story.

Tony: (18:05)
Stretch, what sort of distance is it? Like, is it known yet? What sort of distance is this?

Stretch: (18:15)
At this stage it has a radius of 250 metres but that’s something that is now being worked on. If this is successful we will then work with a slightly bigger mechanism. At the moment the device that’s generating this power is only as big as an esky. It’s only very small simply for the purpose of the the trial, but if we can develop a generator, let’s call it one of a better word, the size of a motor vehicle, then we can cover at least a kilometre radius from that convention centre So that is when it starts getting really exciting because what I can see is that we can power our Wurriki Nyal head office using this power. That would be incredible saving of cost, and that you could imagine the excitement this is going to cause around the world.

Mik: (19:19)
Stretch, could it power moving vehicles too?

Stretch: (19:23)
Well, that would be the next generation of this technology. At the moment, we’re looking at buildings, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t also in time as we spread the radius out of this generator that we could have all the council vehicles operated by this, the power that we’re generating from this building and then we can add it to other council buildings. We’ve got 800 buildings around the city of Geelong. Imagine if we had power generated on all those buildings. We could have our workers, our rubbish trucks generated, all the infrastructure, renewal machines that you see, being run off the electricity generated from our buildings. It would be revolutionary. Unbelievable, Mik, unbelievable!

Colin: (20:12)
Does this mean that it could work off of other solar panels too? Could you see a time when you could just point the device at a panel on a roof and draw that power?

Stretch: (20:25)
It’d be like a router, Colin, that you’re familiar with now. You’ve got the main source and then you have routers around your house. Well, this would be the same. We would be able to beam, say, from the convention centre across to even Barwon Water Building and then Barwon Water Building across town and move it all across the library to the Armstrong Creek Library down to Corio Library. There would be unlimited potential to this, unlimited potential. No one else has got it.

Now we’ve got worldwide patents on this, literally worldwide patents through the Deakin University lawyers that have assisted us on pro bono. We’ve been able to do this on a very inexpensive way. been able to commercialise the knowledge of the Deakin University professors and their PhD students working on this. They’ve all assigned their rights to this, the City of Greater Geelong, Deakin and CSIRO. This will be a good generator of income for all those three entities.

We can then use that income to do asset renewal, help pay down council debt, help with water sustainability of Barwon Water. This is going to be a self-sustaining economic model that the world will want to get a piece of this action, and we can then start selling commercial rights to this around the world in a way that’s never been done before. We’re calling it ‘G-power’, Geelong Power, but G-power is what will be known around the world as.

Colin: (22:05)
It must have drawbacks, Stretch?

Stretch: (22:08)
Look, the drawback at the moment is, like all solar power, is how to store the power that you generate when the sun is not shining. But that’s only a matter of, again, the next generation of research and development. So we’ve got the vision and we’ve got the right people working on this. If we need new information, new input, we’ll reach out to the likes of Elon Musk and these guys and they can help us with the next generation. We’re no problem whatsoever.

Tony: (22:45)
Stretch, is almost as, maybe, no, maybe it’s even bigger than Geelong winning the Premiership!?

Stretch: (22:52)
Look, you probably can hear from my excitement that this is really a game changer and you know, it’s necessity drives innovation and see the city gradually along. We knew we had to find a way that we could be self-sustaining and not rely on ever increasing cost of power and we had to buy into, you know, the sustainability of the city. And this has just been an incredible outcome that exceeds all our expectations.

. . .

SONG 1/ (23:24)
‘The Green Transition’

Welcome to The Green Transition
[Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Hey!”]
The air is clean, life is fun

They call them ‘natural’ — disasters untamed
But I know better, I know who’s to blame
Coal, gas, oil — the damage they do
but I’m the one to choose, I know what’s true

They said ‘just go slow, don’t shake the ground’
But I refuse to back down

[Mo Gawdat: (24:03)
“You should lead… You should lead this revolution.”]

Not ‘some day’, no, right here, right now
I make it right, I make it count

[Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest: (24:13)
“Australia has called for a phase out of fossil fuels.”]

Chorus:
The Green Transition is inevitable
From land to sea, around the world
The Green Transition is inevitable
A great renewal, a bold decision

Bridge:
I build, I vote, I call out the lies
We shape the rules, we change the tide
It’s not impossible, it’s on the rise
A world reborn before our eyes

Chorus:
Welcome to The Green Transition
[Arnold Schwarzenegger “Hey!”]
It’s in our hands, it’s underway
No more waiting, the time is now
We rise together — this is the way
Welcome to The Green Transition

[Mo Gawdat: (25:23)
“You should lead this revolution.”]

. . .

Mark Ogge, Australia Institute, Facebook video clip: (25:30)
I live in central Victoria. Every year it’s getting hotter and drier with more extreme fire risk and our insurance premiums are going through the roof. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel corporations causing this are making billions.

Not only that, these corporations are mostly foreign owned, so most of the profits go overseas. They’re notorious tax avoiders, and Australians get very little benefit.

In the US, the states of California, Hawaii and New York, where they also have disastrous fires and floods, are all making laws to make these fossil fuel companies pay for people’s increased insurance bills.

Our governments can do the same. The “Australian Institute” has long called for a levy on coal and gas exports to pay for the climate disasters that they’re causing. It’s time our governments put Australians ahead of foreign-owned, tax-avoiding fossil fuel corporations and made them pay for the damage that they’re causing.

If we don’t make these companies pay for our skyrocketing insurance costs, then we have to pay. Sign our petition for a climate disaster levy on fossil fuel exports.

. . .

Tony: (26:30)
Our next guest today, when it takes up the thought, adds to the theme. Our guest is Ro, and he’s an inventor. At the moment the biggest thing that he’s working on excites me. I’m sure people will be excited as well. It’s to aid, well it’s got a number of uses, but it’s to get equipment/people to a disaster quicker than it is currently able to, that the technology allows us to. So, Ro, thanks for coming on, and tell us all about “Project Greenlift”.

Ro: (27:17)
Well, thank you very much for having us on. It’s an honour to represent “Project Greenlift” and what an auspicious time we are in at the moment given what’s happening with energy costs. And if I may start there and work my way backwards a little bit. So this project goes back, there’s a story, this project goes back nearly five decades. As a six-year-old boy I had one of those visions, you know that you sometimes have. And it was for a craft of unknown origins and design, but I just knew it was meant to help people.

And I suppose if in the same way religious people have experiences of burning bushes, this was mine. I knew from that point on that this was my destiny. Unfortunately, like most of us, I had to do a lot of serious adult things before I got a crack at it. So coming forward 50 years, we’re now located in a place called Woolgoolga, which is not far from Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, where we have a factory and we’re building the first prototype, which is called the Cicada 222.

It’s called the Cicada 222 because that’s sort of our totem animal and the same way that cicadas spend a long time underground, many many years. And then they finally come up and do their thing. And so this is a bit like our story. It’s been in R&D for a very, very long time. We had a lot of hurdles to get through. Took a long time to build a world-class team. And we’re now in this really exciting position where we, although we’re Australian based physically, we see “Project Greenlift” as a global community of people coming together for this common cause.

The best way to describe what the technology is, is it’s a natural aerodynamic concept called the ‘ground effect’. And the best way can illuminate this is imagine everyone when you’re at the ocean or a lake and you see pelicans flying. And when they’re flying in the air they’re flapping their wings. And for a heavy sea bird that takes a lot of energy. But if you ever notice it looks like sometimes they’re right near the water and they’re gliding. Well it’s not actually gliding. It’s this aerodynamic phenomena called the ‘ground effect’.

Now, why that’s so significant is if you extrapolate that into a man-made wing, as in most conventional aircraft, when you fly a wing less than half of its width from the ground, you encounter this ‘ground effect’ region. And what happens is the lifting dynamics of the wing radically change. It basically gets in a position where it can lift up to 50 per cent more weight and the drag is reduced to the extent that at the same airspeed as a conventional aircraft you’re now using 50 per cent less fuel. Now that’s directly harking back to the situation we’re in at the moment. So effectively you have what looks like an aircraft

Although it’s not an aircraft, I’ll tell you why that’s relevant in a minute, but effectively you’re moving at near-light aviation speeds using 50 per cent less fuel. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen based on what’s going now but it’s going to become a more more consequential thing to how we do life because everything that comes to us is based on logistics.

Not only that, if you look at the dawn of time and how human beings evolved, a lot of it was due to human beings moving from one place to another and hence commerce, trade, technology and cultural exchange. So transport is really deeply rooted in the human psyche and the human experience. We’re now in a position where we’ve explored thoroughly the conventional aviation, conventional maritime, conventional road-based vehicles. They all have their pros and cons, but say for example, you think about what happens when there’s a natural disaster, which is our core modus operandi.

What we’re here to do is get living things, people and animals, in and out of harm’s way during man-made and natural disasters and not only that, be able to economically and safely resupply them. That’s our core mission. That’s the one we’re most passionate about. But like most things in life, we have to have a day job as well. So our day job is low-cost logistics. And the premise is effectively this. We have flight aviation speeds at maritime costs.

I’ll say that again: have a flight aviation speed at maritime cost. Why?

This technology basically had been evolved during the 1960s by the Russians during the Cold War. It was their secret weapon against the US and nobody really even knew about it until the 1980s and then glasnost happened and the Russian economy fell over and it basically went into extinction. It was never forgotten about and it’s very well-known concept in aviation. So whenever you come into land in a plane, last little bit where you feel it mushing down…

That’s the ground effect. often pilots have to push the plane onto the ground because it just wants to keep flying.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation and the International Maritime Authority came together in the early 2000s said: “What are we going to do? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?” And what they decided was they’d make different categories of these ground-effect craft. There’d be A, B and C.

Now think about A, basically, as like a hovercraft. Hovercraft are genius in their element, but they can’t fly out to sea. They can’t handle big waves. If there’s a bridge or a weir or something, or debris, they’re stuck.

So what we can do is under the legislation being a type B ground effect craft, we can legally jump up to 150 metres above the surface, water surface, right? So what that means is if you think about the way human beings evolved, river systems, rivers were joined to the seas and that’s how commerce and trade went. Then we went to road. Now road’s fantastic, but it’s become so unbelievably expensive in terms of building, maintaining road infrastructure and now the cost of fuel and congestion, which are incredibly difficult things.

Even if you go electric, you still got congestion issues and you still have to build infrastructure.

Our plan for our day job is we want to reinvigorate the river systems, river trade, and by having this ability to jump over dams, bridges, we can access entire river systems that join to the sea and therefore make much lower cost logistics systems for small remote communities, which is a big deal.

So if you think about outback communities get cut off by flooding or even their daily consumables, horrendously expensive, purely due to logistics. People who say, live on Lord Howe Island. They pay $700 a cubic metre for their daily consumables. So this is the real core of our value.

Yes, the disaster stuff is our passion, but equally so… making the cost of goods more sustainable on two ways, know, not having to build that infrastructure in the first place, but you don’t need to maintain it because we don’t require any new infrastructure. These are the things we’re so passionate about and we didn’t invent this technology, it’s already been there, we’re just bringing it forward 50 years in time and using Gladys advance in engineering and materials. How’s that for a start?

Mik: (34:54)
So what keeps it flying?

Ro: (34:57)
So the ground effect does. So again, it has wings on it, like a plane, and it’ll fly, this one will fly to between two and five metres off the water surface.

But it has the ability to jump up to 150 metres, say if there’s a wave or there’s a ship in the way or there’s a bridge or a dam, it can jump over it. It also incorporates what’s called aerostatic lift and the simplest way to describe that is a hovercraft is an aerostatic lifting mechanism. Okay, so you’d all be familiar with hovercraft, but what you’d probably be familiar with in hovercraft is a hovercraft with a skirt around it.

The skirt was an invention in the early 1960s to make it more economically viable by saving fuel. But it was also one of the reasons why you don’t see a lot of hovercrafts everywhere. has a lot of drawbacks. The first hovercraft had no skirts. So it’s much more energy efficient. So this thing hovers like a super high performance hovercraft when it’s taking off and landing, safe from the land, and then it accelerates like a plane does and then gets into ground effect where the fuel consumption is cut in half. Yep.

Colin: (36:03)
How big is it, Ro?

Ro: (36:05)
This is the Cicada 222 behind us. This first one is around about 10 metres long. Yeah, it’s around about 10 metres long. The wingspan is about 14 metres, but the wings fold. The wings fold, so this is totally road trailable.

Colin: (36:13)
What’s the wingspan? And what sort of miles, kilometres per litre are you getting? How does it compare with boat travel, for example?

Ro: (36:34)
Okay, so that’s a really interesting question, so I’ll have to give you an analogy again. Boats can be very, very fuel efficient or they can be very, very fuel inefficient. The issue is the medium you’re moving through. So boats are moving through water, which is subject to hydrodynamic drag, which is about six times more viscous than air. The faster you try and get a boat to go, the fuel consumption gets worse and worse and worse and worse. It’s not the same with aircraft. There’s certainly an upper limit, but effectively you can’t really get… You couldn’t make a vessel economically viable at any more than 15 knots. You just couldn’t do it. This is economically viable at 130 to 150 knots.

Colin: (37:18)
Is it subject to wind problems?

Ro: (37:23)
Great question again. So, like anything that flies it is, but the reason that why again, we’ve spent so many years in R&D is looking at why other systems and other approaches at ‘ground effect’ didn’t work. And basically the issue was that when you’re in the ‘ground effect’, you’re effectively a bit like a butterfly. You’re super efficient, but you’re very floaty and subject to the breeze.

So what we did is took a totally different approach to propulsion. And instead of having propellers in free stream, which is very efficient, but it’s not very practical in terms of controllability. We’re using a system called “cold vectored thrust”. Now all that means is, is we have a large compressor system, let’s say large turbocharger type compressor system that pulls in air from the atmosphere. They compress it and that energised air can be pushed out in any direction around the craft at any speed. So we have unbelievably good controllability in adverse conditions.

Colin: (38:20)
So it’s a jet engine?

Ro: (38:22)
Well, it uses a turbo shaft engine, is like an older generation helicopter engine to turn these large turbo compressors that actually pull thousands of cubic litres of air in a minute and they compress it. And it’s that compressed cold air it’s pushing. Another more simpler way to look at it, if you would think about, think about like a 2,000 horsepower fan that you should call yourself. Imagine how much energy is in that. It’s not hot, it’s not like jet propulsion.

Colin: (38:53)
And what fuel does it use, Ro?

Ro: (38:55)
So, Stage 1 will be basically using a combination of anything that’s liquid. So we’re using older generator engines that can burn anything. Stage 2 is a turbo generator, which means it’s an electric engine hooked up to a gas turbine and then it gets super, super efficient. Stage 3 is you then power the gas turbine with compressed hydrogen. Zero emission.

Tony: (39:19)
Ro, can you give us a sense of how, like what it carries? Yeah, absolutely. the fact that it can be taken in and brought and other things can be brought out, products can be brought out.

Ro: (39:38)
Yeah, so fundamentally we are not interested in this as a passenger carrier. We think logistics are the way to go. That’s where the biggest way we can help, I think, the planet the moment is by moving goods economically, especially agricultural projects, time-sensitive projects.

The vessel does that, it has a cargo bay in it that’s about four metres long, which is ludicrous for a craft so small. And it’s designed to take four standard pallets. So they can be loaded by hand or forklift because it has a deck, cargo deck that raises up to deck level and then the forklift can load it and then it’s lowered down.

The reason we did that is everything that comes in our life comes on pallets with the exception of bulk goods. Everything’s palletised. So that’s part of what’s called the intermodal transport system. And we didn’t knew that in order to be practical, we had to fit in with that. So it carries pallets, but it also can carry, it could carry fodder, it could carry hay, dairy meal, small livestock. And in a pinch when it’s doing its core mission, we could fit probably about 20, at least 20 people in that car go by. Yup.

Colin: (40:52)
So the reason that it’s so useful in the case of a disaster is because it can get to an area that has lost its roads. Have I got that right? And that’s why it’s being used now as a disaster relief craft. Correct. Has it got a military use? Are the military interested in it?

Ro: (41:01)
That’s exactly correct. So in other countries they are, and again, know, theoretically yes, but from our whole mission is about a humanitarian service. We prefer to see it used for good rather than for bad. Now, the way you could do that is basically in Medivac. We’d be very proud if it was used for Medivac. And again, the specific area of operations in terms of the military that is most useful are called littoral operations. And that’s that interface between sea or water and land. That’s particularly difficult right now for most militaries to deal with. And that’s one of the biggest challenges where this is, completely amphibious. So land-sea transitions, even if there’s cliffs, it offers no challenge.

Mik: (42:01)
What’s next for you, Ro?

Ro: (42:04)
So what’s next for us is moving forwards into bringing functionality to the craft. So basically that’s you know control systems, flight systems, avionics and avionics and power systems. That’s what’s next getting to the nitty-gritty now that it’s taken a long time to get the get the layout so to speak, you know, and I’ll give you an example why that was so difficult, because it needs to be road trailable that you can’t be any wider than 2.4 metres. Okay, that’s one and secondly, how it actually commercially serves logistics. It’s designed to land in boat ramp car parks. And if you’ve ever seen those car spaces double long, where it’s a car and a trailer, that’s how it actually works. It basically lands in those, the wings fold up and it’s only 2.2 metres wide by that 10 metres long. And we exchange goods and cargoes at any one of Australia’s 5,500 public boat ramps, plus there’s thousands more that are just private, and they’re all linked to the National Road Network. That’s the beauty of the actual system.

Colin: (43:10)
Which surely, Ro, if it lands at a place where there has been an earthquake, how’s it going to take off again when it hasn’t got a boat ramp?

Ro: (43:20.11)
So again, because it’s fully amphibious, due to this hovering capability, anytime there’s a surface, it can push itself off the surface and then start to move forward, or backwards or sideways or in reverse.

Colin: (43:35)
I’d love to keep talking but we’re coming towards the end of our time.

Ro: (43:40)
It’s a deep honour to be able to share this with you because again, this is world first. There is no other craft in this and I think the thing we’re most passionate about just quickly is I used to work for 17 years with people with disabilities, mostly in wheelchairs.

Now when there’s a natural disaster they’re in more trouble than you can imagine because there’s no marine vehicles or aircrafts or land-based that’s designed to rescue them. This is designed with ramps, designed ISO standard, where people can be wheeled straight into it and there’s a special place in a crew capsule where they’re secured to the ground. We’re deeply proud of that.

Tony: (44:14)
Has there been any interest from the government or have you approached them at all? Are there any incentives for you guys to take this forward?

Ro: (44:23)
Yes and no. The government’s never as straightforward. What they basically say is: ‘Show us when it works!’

Colin: (44:30)
And we can put you onto our mayor!

Ro: (44:33)
He’s a pretty cool dude with an idea like that!

Tony: (44:35)
Yeah, wow, that was amazing.

Ro: (44:38)
Blew me away, that one!

Colin: (44:40)
We have to go now. But it’s been wonderful. Look, come back on again, if you will, when we have a little bit more time, yeah, we’d like to explore it further.

Tony: (44:48)
Love to do that.

Ro: (44:49)
We’re gonna do it. And we love what you’re doing as well, know, it’s great to be part of the movement for good as there’s a lot of darkness in the world at the moment. It’s good for people to know, “No, it’s not hopeless”. There’s passionate people all around the world who care and they’re actively doing something. So thank you for doing what you do.

Colin: (45:09)
Thank you!

Tony: (45:10)
Great to hear that!

Mik: (45:12)
Be innovative, but also: Be good.

. . .

SONG 2/ (45:29)
‘Growing Houses Growing Hope’
(A song about powering our way out)

Verse 1:
We powered our way into trouble and heat,
Smoke in the sky, flames at our feet.
But now we’ve got tools, and we’ve opened the gate,
To flip the script and regenerate.

Chorus:
We’re growing houses, growing hope,
With bamboo, hemp, and microscope.
From food scraps rise our veggie farms,
Right in the city, safe from harm.
We’re building dreams that clean the air,
With microbes spinning meals from care.
We’re farming nature, not just crops—
Forests bloom where logging stops.

Verse 2:
We used to cut, now we regrow,
Wetlands thrive where rivers flow.
Our rooftops shine with solar light,
Our buildings breathe, the future’s bright!

Bridge:
We powered our way in,
Now we power our way out.
With science and spirit,
We’re turning it about.

From cornstarch walls to protein dust,
We’re feeding the planet with balance and trust.

Final Chorus:
We’re growing houses, growing hope,
With bamboo, hemp, and microscope.
The planet’s healing, day by day,
Because we found a better way.
So sing it loud, and plant the seed,
A world of care is all we need—
We’re cooling down, and rising up,
Together strong, and full of love.

Outro:
Growing houses… growing hope…
One green step, one shared road.

. . .

Frank Holleman video clip – “May the forks be with you!”: (48:29)
Do my sustainable choices even matter with everything that’s going on in the world? Well, it depends. What certainly feels pointless is trying to calculate each gram of CO2 and reduce my footprint as far as possible. This path leads to burnout because there’s always more to feel guilty about. So let me suggest a different path of exploring a sustainable version of the good life. Less meat, more plants. Less flying, more local adventure, and less stuff, more memories. These things save lots of CO2 and money, but more importantly, they help me to become less of a consumer and focus more on what really matters. This is a rebellion against the individualist rat race to earn money and consume. And it creates more space for community, because people who are always in a hurry have no space for compassion. Becoming less consumer chips away at the foundation of the system that’s always hungry for more money and power. So the more I think about this, living a sustainable version of the good life is not only useful, but one of the only things that really matters. May the forks be with you.

Electrify Everything video clip: (49:46)
Anger and bewilderment are growing as more and more Americans cope with gasoline lines and empty pumps.
“And I’m out again. Dead out.”
“I’m in a line two hours and I can’t get gassed. This is baloney.”
“Why anybody contacting the president? Why is he letting this happen to us?”
Some of the people online here still don’t have a tank of gas. Except for this gentleman who’s driving an electric vehicle.
“Nah, I’m fine. I charged it home last night. Good luck though.”

SONG 3/ (50:17)
‘EV Smile’

Intro – spoken/sung with attitude:
No tailpipe.
No rumble.
No drama.
Just sunshine.
E.V. smile.
Let’s roll.

Verse 1:
I glide out the driveway – smooth and silent
Kids wave, magpies sing
I’m not choking my kids with exhaust anymore
When I roll down my window, I can hear the trees breathing

Pull up at the lights. Waiting for green
Arm out the window, and the E.V. smile
While the SUV next to me’s guzzlin’ dollars every mile
I drive for free – by clean powers of the sky

Chorus:

My sunshine powered car
Goodbye petrol, I for one won’t miss you!
My sunshine powered car
My car runs on sunshine, no smoke, no roar
My sunshine powered car
Cutting the carbon, while saving money too
My sunshine powered car
That’s the E.V. joy – that’s what we’re doing it for

Verse 2:
Cost of living’s up, I feel it as too
But I don’t feel it at the bowser
I skipped that queue
Charge at home, off my rooftop
While I make a cup of tea
It’s freedom – not just for the rich
But for people like me

Funky Breakdown – mid-tempo groove:
Through the forest – windows down
Can hear the kookaburras laughin’
No drone of diesel, just that smell of life
And I’m still tappin’ into the sun

Bridge – punchy, call & response:
No oil changes! (None.)
No tailpipe tax! (Nope.)
No engine heat, no huge repair bills!
This is the life! I’ve got the E.V. smile.

Chorus:

My sunshine powered car
Goodbye petrol, I for one won’t miss you!
My sunshine powered car
My car runs on sunshine, no smoke, no roar
My sunshine powered car
Cutting the carbon, while saving money too
My sunshine powered car
That’s the E.V. joy – that’s what we’re doing it for

Outro – with bounce:
This car runs on sunshine
Clean. Calm. Clever.
I’m cruisin’ past the servo signs
Like “nah, not ever.”

So come to Ocean Grove, take a spin
Talk myths, ride bikes, get the E.V. grin
The future’s here – keys in hand
Let’s drive it together, across this land

(Spoken)
No fumes. No fuss. No fortune required.
Just sunshine – and the will to do the right thing.
Let’s move.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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POWER OF IMAGINATION in a world on edge

Project Greenlight and Cicada 222

“Focus on becoming less consumer, and more community”

How we can take back control of energy prices

TRANSCRIPT
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Project Greenlight and Cicada 222

“Focus on becoming less consumer, and more community”

How we can take back control of energy prices

TRANSCRIPTof The Sustainable Hour no. 584

CALENDARSEvents we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

Events in Victoria

PETITIONS AND OPEN LETTERSyou could add your name to

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TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 584

CALENDARS
Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

PETITIONS AND OPEN LETTERS
you could add your name to

NEWSLETTER
Receive our podcast newsletter in your mailbox

FOLLOW, INTERACT AND SHARE
The Sustainable Hour in social media