Promising discussions with key players have been opening doors for Green Our Grid, our campaign to replace Port Augusta's Playford coal power station with a concentrated solar thermal facility.

When it comes to climate change, South Australia is both a leader and a laggard. We led the country by establishing state climate change laws in 2007, but made no commitment to reduce our emissions till 2050. Meanwhile, we are preparing to host the world's largest open-cut mine, which will drive up our state's baseload energy demand by nearly 40%! And we are home to Australia's most emissions intensive coal power station.

But that could be about to change. Through the Green Our Grid campaign, Conservation Council SA is calling for something bold and visionary. We want the skeleton in South Australia's closet - the Playford power station at Port Augusta - to be replaced with a cutting edge renewable energy power plant. To fund this landmark campaign our goal is to raise $75,000. Please consider making a contribution if you are in a position to give your support.

Fortunately there is a huge opportunity here to tap into the abundance of renewable energy resources we are blessed with in South Australia. This is the right time to build a state-of-the-art renewable energy facility at Port Augusta that will create hundreds of clean energy jobs in theregion and give SA the first mover advantage in the low-carbon economy of the future.

This will require visionary and decisive action from our leaders, and this action needs to be taken soon or there is a real danger that our increased future energy requirements will be met by the construction of old, polluting sources of energy. Your donation will help prevent this from happening.

Soaring power requirements in SA

Without swift action to ramp up renewable energy our State's greenhouse gas pollution will almost certainly go up, not down. Our power needs are predicted to soar in coming years driven by South Australia's growing population and the staggering energy-demand of the Olympic Dam mine expansion.

While the government has taken some good initiatives in the past to promote renewable energy, it is not moving fast enough to offset this predicted increase in energy demand. The government's legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets are nearly 40 years away. Things need to move much quicker than this. Major infrastructure projects take time. The State Government must move now to ensure the establishment of alternative, renewable power sources.

The state government's climate change legislation will be reviewed this year. This is a key window of opportunity to secure meaningful change, with targets to make sure our emissions go down, not up by 2020.

Some inspiring examples of large-scale renewable energy power plants are emerging around the world at the moment. Spain has 37 solar plants already built or under construction, with a further 200 planned. Plants currently gearing up in both the US and South Africa would be more than capable of providing baseload energy for South Australia.'

What has been happening?

Progress on Green Our Grid has been like the operation of a solar thermal power station: quiet and steady. Rather than making a lot of public noise, we've started this campaign by simply asking the relevant decision-makers for what we want.

The response has been encouraging. Playford operator, Alinta Energy, is keen to be part of a renewable energy solution. There is support in Port Augusta for large-scale solar to grow green jobs in the region and South Australian unions are interested. A global engineering firm is undertaking the technical feasibility work on a pro bono basis. In all, the feedback we've received from the community has been overwhelmingly supportive. However, some real barriers to large-scale solar remain.

Barriers remain

The federal government is treating gas as a clean energy source, giving it so much compensation the LNG industry is actually set to profit under the carbon price. With SA's declining conventional gas reserves soon to be replaced by coal seam or shale gas, this is no way to future-proof our economy and is a dirty alternative. But gas will be the default replacement for Playford if we allow it.

Our state government plans to limit the carbon intensity of new power stations, but apparently is not looking at emissions on a life-cycle basis. So again, dirty technologies like coal seam gas will come up smelling sweet.

Higher commitment to renewables needed by BHP

Then there are the closed doors. For months we've been raising the alarm that BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam expanded mine will increase SA's energy demand by a mind-boggling 40%, with only 8% coming from renewables. A higher commitment to renewable energy at this scale would dramatically change the energy landscape in SA. But BHP has kept its doors firmly closed to us.

We have, however, finally met with representatives from the government's Olympic Dam taskforce to discuss impacts of the proposed expansion. We are talking to other stakeholders about the opportunities for collaboration. We will keep working on a number of fronts to overturn these barriers to the change we all know is needed.

South Australia is in an ideal position to lead Australia into a renewably-powered future. Our progress to date is no excuse for complacency; we need to keep up the momentum to truly Green Our Grid.

Thank you once again for your support.

Kind regards,

Tim Kelly
Chief Executive
Conservation Council of South Australia

PS: We are very excited to be working on the Green Our Grid campaign, pushing for the replacement of Playford power station with a cutting edge renewable energy plant. We hope you also recognise the great importance of evolving energy at this moment in history and can support the campaign with a donation.