Mr Finkel's statements followed the release of a report by the University of Technology Sydney's Institute for Sustainable Futures that found the Australian government's plan to keep coal-fired power stations open would cost the nation $3.5 billion as opposed to a $2.2 billion clean energy package that included more renewable energy generation.

"Well, 50 per cent renewables by 2030 is eminently achievable for Australia," Mr Finkel said, rejecting federal government claims.

But is this shift in the generation mix possible?

California's Energy Commissioner Andrew McAllister has told Fairfax Media this transition to a more diverse energy mix is possible, but it requires strong policy and collaboration between government and industry.

Much like Australia's National Electricity Market, California was facing an energy crisis that - according to Mr McAllister - was self-inflicted and caused in part by deregulation of the industry, however, it has managed to dramatically turn this situation around.

Only two years ago California - a US state with a population only slightly greater than Australia - set into law a goal of generating half of all its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Now it has announced it will meet this benchmark by 2020, a decade ahead of schedule.

The three largest utilities all passed the 25 per cent renewables benchmark in 2016, and believe they are well on the way to hitting the earlier target.

Mr McAllister said that energy efficiency has played a significant part of this transition, and has been a pillar of California's energy landscape since the 1970s, creating more than $US100 billion ($132 billion) for the state's economy in savings.

It was this focus, combined with an environmental basis, that drove the transition to a new energy landscape.

Policy was one of the major contributing factors in implementing a change in industry.

"There's a lot of policy options Australia can take, it's about actually setting policy," Mr McAllister said.

"If you have a good plan that everyone agrees upon then you can achieve it.

"You have to take a long-term view."

His comments echoed those of Mr Finkel, who said, "we need certainty in the system which we haven't had under [Prime Minister Malcolm] Turnbull".

Planning and management of a more flexible grid is also crucial in ensuring demand is met.

During the August 2017 solar eclipse, California's solar generation facilities saw a 4000-megawatt drop - twice the capability of AGL's Liddell coal-fired power station - in the span of 15 minutes.

Through planning and resourcing from a diverse generation base, California was able to meet that demand until solar power was again available.

Mr McAllister said true energy policy must go beyond the fuel source that is generating power, to include demand response, building efficiency, and even home appliance energy usage through regulatory measures.

Building efficiency, that is the ability to retain heat in the winter and minimise carbon emissions, is an under-appreciated factor in saving energy and transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Buildings account for nearly 40 per cent of the European Union's total energy bill, and 36 per cent of Europe's CO2 emissions.

The capability to integrate this building efficiency already exists in Australia but is seeing take up overseas, with one Australian company, Pro9 Global, recently receiving a $20 million contract in Croatia to install energy-efficient building facades as part of a pilot program that may be rolled out across the entire European Union.

"Buildings are like the lungs of the system, they can both take and give energy, it's a two-way system," Mr McAllister said.

Baseload be all and end all

While much of Australia's federal government has focused on the issue of baseload, linking it directly with ongoing reliability and continued coal-fired power generation, Mr McAllister said baseload is no longer as important it once was.

"The days of baseload are well gone," Mr McAllister said.

"It is not needed for the grid. The grid needs to be balanced, what we need are more resources to drawn down on," he said.

The energy network has shifted from the single, one-way direction of power to a multi-directional system, and that constant baseload energy is not what the grid now demands.

However, he added that Australia's national electricity market does differ from California in the sense that Australia still has significant heavy industry which draws on a constant level of a power - as opposed to the much more flexible consumer demand flows - so some baseload may still be needed, "but this need won't be growing".

In light of this, the Australian government could appear to be misguided on the link between baseload and reliability.

"The fact is we have not had a reliability problem, and we've got the empirical sense we can angle towards a more flexible grid."