The community of Port Augusta, today's stop in Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne's rural tour, is behind a push to replace its coal fired power stations with world-leading solar thermal power, enabled by the price on pollution, contracts for closure of coal fired power stations, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Senator Milne is today meeting Port Augusta Mayor, Joy Baluch, and members of the Repower Port Augusta community group.
"This is a clear good news story from the Clean Energy Act," Senator Milne said.
"It was a privilege to meet a mayor and community looking to seize the benefits of building a clean energy economy, bringing change for the better in Port Augusta.
"The Port Augusta community has seen the impact on their health of having old, dirty power stations on their doorstep, and they know that building solar power will not only clean the air and cut the pollution that drives global warming, but it will also create more jobs in region.
"Port Augusta has double the incidence of lung cancer of South Australia as a whole.
"Doctors for the Environment have 'prescribed' solar power for Port Augusta as a way to cut the terrible incidence of respiratory illnesses.
"The Clean Energy Act will support repowering Port Augusta through not only putting a price on pollution but also buying out old coal fired power stations that are ready to close and supporting building big solar power stations through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
"The CEFC will assist the business case for this initiative, but the Federal and South Australian governments will need to come on board to support it."
China quadruples solar target
"Just as Australia finally puts a price on pollution, China is powering ahead quadrupling its target for solar power to an astonishing 21 gigawatts by 2015. If we don't start to build a clean energy economy in Australia, we'll be left behind swiftly."
