Australia could enter the "low-carbon club" if it gears up on electric cars and energy storage.
Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes on Tuesday launched a campaign to address supply shocks and surging energy bills.
"If you were planning on an orderly transition, you wouldn't start from here," he told AAP.
Energy and climate leaders at the Better Futures Forum in Canberra want an expansion of renewable energy storage - both large-scale and in people's homes.
"If we don't start building now, then there are risks for our whole economy," Mr Grimes said.
The industry body has joined with Better Futures Australia, an alliance of business and community leaders representing more than seven million Australians, to call for rapid investment guided by a federal strategy.
"Australia is sitting on a potential bonanza," according to Lord Adair Turner, chair of the Global Energy Transition Commission.
"It doesn't take a genius to work out that Australia's greatest natural resource is not coal but sun shining, sunshine falling on a massive land area."
If there were solar panels on one thousandth of the land area, Australia could produce 500 terawatt hours of completely green electricity - twice its current production.
In addition to meeting all current electricity demands, Australia could produce about 17 million tonnes a year of green hydrogen, which at $1.50 per kilogram would be worth $36 billion per year, and replace coal exports.
"And that's before you consider massive wind resources as well," Lord Turner said from London.
But Mr Grimes warned accelerating the construction of wind and solar assets won't be enough.
"Energy storage is the key ingredient we need," he said.
"The really big opportunity is behind the meter with household batteries and electric vehicles, which are batteries on wheels."
A typical household solar battery has 10 kilowatt hours of capacity, while an electric car has five or six times that amount and could plug into the electricity grid during evening peak demand to sell spare energy.
Francis Wedin, founder and CEO of ASX-listed renewable energy and net-zero battery firm Vulcan Energy Resources, has taken Australian lithium expertise to Europe to serve German car makers.
He sees Australia, Europe and North America as part of a "low carbon club" that's developing.
"Australia has an important role to play, both in raw materials and increasingly in refining."
But Dr Weden told AAP the world needs to build a whole new global battery industry and needs to do it quickly.
Although Australia has some of the world's best raw materials, China is globally dominant in vital refined minerals and is moving to protect itself by preferentially supplying its own manufacturers, he warned.
"That is a real risk because lithium is the lifeblood of electric vehicles."
As Australia's coal-fired power plants shut down, energy regulators estimate 18,000 megawatts of storage will be needed to support a grid that's heading towards 82 per cent renewables by 2030.
"If we want to avoid massive price spikes, uncertainty and stress for business then we need a planned approach before we turn off the old assets of the past," Mr Grimes said.
"If we don't get it right now, we're going to run out of time."
Australian Associated Press
