If you're finding it hard to keep up with what's happening in energy, don’t feel alone!

Our CE Craig Wilkins breaks down the latest in SA's energy story to help you get a handle on how the news affects South Australians — and what we can do to take control of our energy future.

We are living through extraordinary times, with exciting advances in technology alongside the continual threat from a warming planet radically changing the status quo on an almost daily basis.

Here's a breakdown of some of the biggest news in energy this month:

This week the Turnbull Government made its latest attempt to provide a coherent response to the Finkel Review and the pressure to respond to rising prices by dumping the Chief Scientist's Clean Energy Target.

Here at Conservation SA, we're big fans of Giles Parkinson from RenewEconomy: here was his take on the Turnbull plan. Another great summary explanation has come from John Quiggan.

South Australia is at the epicentre of much of the energy debate because we are further along the transition path to cleaner sources of power than other places. That’s incredibly exciting and gives us great potential for first-mover advantage.

We're excited to be part of an people-powered initiative that will give us a chance to connect as a community and take the power into our own hands. But more on that later.

The Weatherill Government’s Energy Plan has delivered some very positive changes, with a solar thermal plant at Port Augusta and sound investment in large storage and reliability measures.

And last week, the SA Liberal Opposition announced their energy plan. While we're disappointed they continue to dismiss a state based renewable target, the interesting overall take-home message is they have embraced renewables as the only future for our state.  

Meanwhile, there remains much manipulation and game playing by big energy players to keep our energy bills too high, along with our emissions. This is especially true in the gas market – emphasising once again the need to transition way from all fossil fuels, including gas, as quickly as possible. It’s a disgrace that we pay the highest electricity prices in the world. 

There is some really good news, though: going solar gives you the power to fight back.

For a while we’ve been exploring better options for communities as a result of the breathtaking drop in prices of solar and batteries.

We think a community solar program is a perfect solution to our electricity crisis. So we’ve helped develop a new community solar program exclusively for South Australia, using the 'Solar 2.0' platform created by ShineHub and backed by the Australian Solar Council.

In Northern Rivers NSW, this community solar model recently helped 110 homeowners go solar, with over half adding batteries. The reaction has been incredibly positive - some members are reporting bills as low as $3.78 per month in the middle of winter!

Check out this recent story!

We’ll be sharing some more information very shortly on this exciting opportunity. Stay tuned!