Eden-Monaro MP Mike Kelly said the government is “completely paralysed” on the issue, and 80 per cent of local survey respondents seek a “renewable future”.

The Liberal Party’s candidate for the next federal election Fiona Kotvojs, who herself lives completely off the energy grid, said this week the most common issue raised with her by voters is the high cost of energy.

Dr Kotvojs said a policy of complete renewable energy use would create reliability issues and increase the price of power.

“The Liberal government is providing a multi-pronged approach to reduce price, improve reliability and reduce emissions,” she said.

“The reality is we need a balance; lower prices, improved reliability and reduced emissions.”

While the government’s National Energy Guarantee may now be history, an August poll found 91 per cent of readers believed the policy would not reduce their power bills.

Labor is proposing to take on the guarantee’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target if elected.

Australian National University engineering professor and solar energy systems researcher Andrew Blakers said despite current government policy, solar and wind technologies are being installed at an “amazing” rate, and Australia is “outpacing Europe in rapid reductions in greenhouse gasses”.

Professor Blakers will be visiting the region in February to take part in the Clean Energy For Eternity led public meeting to discuss Tathra’s ability to reach complete use of renewable energy by the year 2030.

He said the installation of rooftop solar would see residents make back costs and reduce their bills in just a few years, and while expensive to construct, pumped hydro storage would make energy infrastructure more reliable.

“I think last summer there were 40 coal power station failures, and the cost of digging coal and using it will be more expensive than solar and wind in a couple of years,” he said.

“The science is saying we are on track to rapidly grow the renewable energy sector.”

Professor Blakers said there are at least 2000 potential pumped hydro sites in Eden-Monaro alone, which he said would also create jobs on the South Coast.

“All you need to do is fill it up once and for 50 years the water will go round and round,” he said.

“Australia would need a few dozen of these sites to help it get to 100 per cent renewables.

“You would also want to scatter them around because you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.”

Professor Blakers said power is currently flowing to the South Coast from coal fired power plants in the Hunter Valley.

“We should be able to reverse that so that power flows from the South Coast to Sydney,” he said.

“There’s a small number of ultra influential people in government who are bitterly opposed to renewables and I can’t understand why.

“Why oppose billions of dollars of investment?”

Essential Energy said while small scale solar photovoltaic systems have been the most popular installations, they are seeing an “increased number of applications for a variety of energy generation systems of differing types and scales”.

“As recognition of this increased activity, Essential Energy has a specialised Network Connections team who assess, analyse and respond to requests for small and large scale generation projects to be constructed and connected to Essential Energy’s electricity network,” they said.