But another, quieter, energy revolution is also happening under their noses.

University of Tasmania School of Technology, Environments and Design research fellow Phillipa Watson studies individuals and communities in times of change.

She has examined individuals buying solar panels and communities investing in shared batteries - she has even met Tasmanian farmers who get their electricity from their own mini-hydropower systems.

Dr Watson said people were taking control of their own electricity needs in a way that hasn't been possible in over 100 years.

"With the grid, it was monolithic," she said. "It was a one-way system; it just pumped [electricity] out to people, and people didn't have a say. But one thing we're seeing now is that people are getting options.

"We have a PhD student down here and she always says to me, 'Pip, we've had 100 years of the same thing'. And now, we've got these amazing changes happening. We've got this evolution that we've not seen for a century going on. And it's really creative."

In Tasmania, over 32,000 homes and businesses have solar. Across Australia, some suburbs have reached over 50 per cent coverage of households using solar and batteries. Twice in the past year, the majority of the electricity being used on the National Electricity Market - which covers all states and territories except for WA and the NT - was made up of renewable energy. Both times, more than half of the renewable energy came from the rooftop solar panels of everyday people and businesses.

It's those sort of statistics that sustain Dr Watson when thinking about the daunting threat of climate change.

"When I take things to a small scale, that's where I find my hope," she said.

"If I look at the bigger picture I could feel completely overwhelmed. But when I speak to people in their homes about what they care about, I find that Tasmanians care, and they are resourceful - even if they're not labelled as someone who cares about the environment.

"What I find underneath it all is that people have very strong values, and they do care about people, places, environments, and their homes, and that's what I see. That's the privilege of doing the research that I do.

"On the whole, we're shaking things up. And it's always good to diversify."

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She said the next key change that needs to happen on a household level is investment in making homes energy efficient - especially low-income households with poor insulation and poor-quality heaters.

"Even little nudges can make amazing changes for the occupants," she said. "You can't necessarily get into the walls and add extra insulation because that's really expensive, but just the simple act of putting draught proofing on a door, providing a more efficient heater, curtains - these make major differences."

Dr Watson is one of dozens of researchers working to solve the problem of climate change and bringing forward renewable energy generation at the University of Tasmania.

"There's so much work going on about care of climate and care of people and care of environment in Tasmania," she said.

"Most of the researchers I know are working on something around that, and the positive solutions there."