Hi Neighbour: Would you like a clean energy scholarship?

In spring, Yael Stone is heading off on tour – but this one will be a little different. The founding director of Hi Neighbour is set to promote clean energy careers, new scholarships and a 12-minute film called Love Your Work.

Yael's Love Your Work REZ Tour will visit Renewable Energy Zones around NSW, first stop Armidale on September 17, then Newcastle, Muswellbrook and Dubbo in October.

At each stop, the team will host a free event, with music by a local band, conversations about wind and solar careers, and a screening of Love Your Work, Hi Neighbour's short film starring past scholarship winners that debuted in Port Kembla in February.

It's a milestone moment for the organisation born in the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires. Yael shot to global fame as the star of Orange is the New Black and her latest feature film, an Australian drama-thriller titled Wilderness, premiered last week at the Melbourne International Film Festival. But back home in the steel city of Wollongong, Hi Neighbour's founder is known as a dedicated climate communicator, balancing family, acting career and charitable work.

“Like most of us life is a bit of a juggle, but it's a circus act I feel particularly lucky to be in,” Yael said. “I started setting up on Hi Neighbour in 2022 and after four years I am happy to report I'm even more passionate about our mission. 

“Working directly with scholarship awardees is particularly special. By the end of 2026 we will have supported 27 individuals on their journey, that means a lot to me.”

Building on lessons learned in the Illawarra, the Hi Neighbour tour will visit traditional coal-mining areas set for change, targeting residents aged 18 to 24. In each REZ, EnergyCo is upgrading the grid to support new generation and storage projects, which are tipped to bring hundreds of millions in community benefits as well as jobs.

In the Central-West Orana REZ, for example, the NSW Government expects up to $25 billion dollars in private investment, creating an annual average of about 1,850 direct jobs in the local area during construction, and about 930 ongoing operational jobs from 2034.  

Hi Neighbour will invite applications for four scholarships, with recipients each receiving $2857 and bespoke support to pursue their renewable career pathway. 

A 'heartfelt' model

Hi Neighbour runs on donations and a circular model, funding businesses to install rooftop solar, then using interest on those loans to fund scholarships.

UOW’s Energy Futures Network Director Ty Christopher gives it the thumbs up.

“I think one of the things that Hi Neighbour has, as part of its secret sauce, is just such a compelling and human-centred ethos to how they operate,” he said.

“It's heartfelt. The whole point of existing is so that they can encourage and help people to pursue careers in the clean energy industry, whether it's through outright training or retraining the people from legacy industries and into clean energy. 

“One of the things I've really liked about working with Hi Neighbour and seeing their success has been, rather than trying to do everything with each cohort, they've been quite targeted. Their first intake was transition, and people who wanted to move directly out of fossil fuel industry jobs and into clean energy. The next tranche was focused on women, and then the third tranche was indigenous peoples, and bringing our First Nations people into that conversation. 

“I found that to be tremendously impactful.”

While there are government grants and subsidised courses for clean-tech students, Australia still needs charities like Hi Neighbour to help build the workforce, Ty said.

“We need the people, no matter what. 

“We're still, by most estimates, 30,000 electricians short of what this nation needs. That's just one trade level – it's probably the same again across all disciplines of engineering.” 

Social scientists needed too

The energy transition presents “huge career opportunities” for young people, Ty said. “We are fortunate here in Australia, because we are at the leading edge. One of the biggest challenges that we face is there's not a textbook for what we're doing right now.”

There are technical jobs aplenty adapting an electricity grid that wasn’t built for wind or solar, but now runs on more than 50% renewables. However, another opportunity lies in social science studies, which could lead to careers in academic research, government policy and public engagement. 

“The technology to decarbonise our society here in Australia is already here,” Ty said. “Some of it might be a little bit expensive, but from a technology perspective, you could get there with what we've got now.

"The biggest barrier and the biggest challenge for us is actually the social discourse and the social transformation. 

“What we have at the moment in Australia is one side of politics listening to science and the other side of politics wantonly ignoring science to serve the interests of their donors. We have this tension debate around something that, as an engineer, I look at objectively and say, but the facts are clear. Yet here we are having the debate ongoing around people’s 'belief' or otherwise in renewables – there’s no belief aspect to it, it's just physics and science. 

“Whether it's the psychology of people's natural resistance to change, whether it's their allegiance to political parties, to economic self-interests, you name it, there are opportunities for careers here for people to be engaged not just with the techie stuff but also with the social transformation and the social science, so people do come along the journey of understanding

“Whether we're using nickel manganese cobalt or lithium ferrous phosphate or sodium phosphate batteries, that'll all happen and work out in the tech world – the social side of things is where the challenges really are.”

For more information about the Love Your Work REZ Tour and Hi Neighbour's scholarships, visit their website.