REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Imagine going to school and knowing your classroom is off the grid - because that's the reality for students at Bracken Ridge State High School. This school on the north side of Brisbane is the first in Queensland to entirely rely on renewable energy to power their classroom. Angus Taylor is the Minister for Energy. He'll be launching the pilot classroom at the school this morning. Minister, good morning. How is Bracken Ridge State High School gone off the grid?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, they've established a classroom there which is completely off-grid by using a combination of solar and batteries, and in the process they've not only avoided the cost of connecting up to the grid - which can be $30,000 or $40,000 - but they're also getting savings, significant savings from their energy costs of maintaining the buildings. This is particularly well suited for schools because a lot of the energy usage of course is during the day when the sun is shining. So, it fits pretty well and with a battery you can get that to work beautifully, whereby the demand for electricity from air-conditioning and all the other things you do in the classroom fits with the available supply of energy with a bit of storage along the way. So, it's a really good model. This is the third classroom. We've got two running now in New South Wales, in Dapto and Holsworthy and this is the third.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: How much money will it save the school in electricity bills?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well look we're expecting it to be about $3000 or more a year in the electricity bills, but there's also the avoided connection upfront. This is the big deal for growth areas where the poles and wires, the transmission distribution network is congested which is true in a lot of growth areas. It's also true in regional and rural areas where connecting up to the grid can be very expensive. So going off grid can be a realty big saving. I know of someone who lives on a farm outside of town, this is a big deal and there's real opportunities here to drive energy savings, of course emissions come down, and if you can get the storage right then going off grid can be a realistic alternative.

CRAIG ZONCA: This is just one classroom. Why not go with the whole school Angus Taylor?

ANGUS TAYLOR: ARENA who are funding it, a Federal Government agency, does R&D projects - this is trialling things, this is about doing trials and we're doing these three classrooms and subject to how they go we hope that this will be taken up much more broadly. Certainly, Hivve, the company we're working with, is keen to start rolling this out more broadly and we're providing the support we can through the trials to get the evidence that this works well.

CRAIG ZONCA: Would you be then suggesting that all schools of the future should be completely off the grid?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well this will be up to state governments, obviously - they run schools and build schools - but what we do do through ARENA is we do R&D to demonstrate that this can work, and that's what this is all about. We want to have the demonstration, the data to show that there are savings, the evidence to show that it works. That's how you get pragmatic solutions like this rolled out and this is a good Australian company, a western Sydney company that is driving this. We want to see Australian entrepreneurs really having a crack at these sorts of projects, and getting the support they need to get them up and running, the demonstration sites, the pilot sites and then they can roll them out much more broadly.

CRAIG ZONCA: Why wasn't a Queensland company used for this school in Queensland?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I guess it happens that this is the company that's been doing it across Australia but we certainly use Queensland companies for lots of things, in my previous portfolios we've certainly done that. You know, really what we want to do here is the demonstration of being able to deliver power when it's needed in a classroom with cost savings, going off-grid and that's applicable, not just in schools, I think that will be applicable much more broadly as I said earlier.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Angus Taylor is the Minister for Energy on his way to Bracken Ridge State High School – that will be the first classroom in Queensland to run entirely on renewable energy. So, everything in the classroom from the lights to the fans, to the computers in there, the air conditioning run on renewables. Angus Taylor, how are coal power companies feeling about the idea of schools going this direction?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Oh, I don't think there's any problem with that. Look, going-

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Really? You've just said they're going to save $3000 a year on their power bill.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Look, you know, it's not about the cost to the energy companies, this is about what's good for consumers, and this has been my point about energy policy consistently over recent weeks and months is that the focus of the industry, the focus of the work we do has to be on consumers, what's good for consumers. That's my job. That's what I'll focus on and that's what this project is all about, giving users of energy a good deal and I'll fight every day to make sure that's the case. The energy companies haven't always had to focus on the consumer, they should have, and we'll do whatever we can and we'll take whatever measures we have to to make sure that the energy companies are doing the right thing.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: How much did it cost to make a solar powered classroom?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well it depends on the classroom. This one cost about $2,000 a square metre and that's the entire classroom. The important point is this is not just about the solar cells and the batteries, it's also about the way the classroom's built for energy efficiency. The biggest energy savings you can get is in the way you build the building and these classrooms are built in a way where they are very energy efficient. You get significant savings as a result of the things you do upfront when you build the classroom and that's true more generally with houses and commercial buildings, industrial facilities, you can get very big savings in energy in the way you build them right up front and that's the case here as well.

CRAIG ZONCA: Angus Taylor is the Federal Energy Minister. Mr Taylor, you've previously spoken about the possibility of heavy-handed intervention in breaking up power companies unless prices start coming down, when will you start taking action along those lines?

ANGUS TAYLOR: We're bringing forward a package of legislation into the Parliament later this year and that will give the ACCC and the Treasurer the power they need if necessary to get the big energy companies to do the right thing and that includes governments. The truth is the biggest energy company in Queensland is the Queensland Government. They've been taking, this year, it will be about $2 billion in cash from those companies, and we need them to do the right thing by the customers. Now, we had the Queensland Energy Minister saying the other day that wholesale prices are coming down. That's well and good but we want to see retail prices come down. We want to see prices for the customer coming down as those wholesale prices come down, and we'll use what measures we have to to make sure that the right thing is done. Profit taking in an industry like this where every Australian business and household buys this service, an essential service - gouging $2 billion a year from that to bolster a state budget, that's really inappropriate.

CRAIG ZONCA: That said the government would argue here in Queensland that they're investing that money back into trying to make power bills cheaper. In fact one of my bills this year was the cheapest I've seen in years because I had $50 back from the Queensland Government. So is it fair for you to criticise the state government as you are?

ANGUS TAYLOR: $2 billion dollars is a lot of money. $2 billion of profit, way up from where it was previously, significantly up from the previous year - that is a lot of money to be taking out. Let's remember this is a bread and butter service, this is a fundamental essential service for every Australian business and household. Now really is that where a government should be taking its money? I don't think so. We're going to ask the energy companies to do the right thing and if they don't we'll take whatever steps we have to.

CRAIG ZONCA: Angus Taylor, thanks for your time this morning.

ANGUS TAYLOR: That's a pleasure.