Greens Senator Scott Ludlam was in the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia on Tuesday; convening a meeting to plan the Goldfields’ renewable energy future.
Senator Ludlam says the Australian Greens’ Connecting Clean Energy plan (PDF) was a perfect fit for the Goldfields. The plan focuses on the identification and creation of new Renewable Energy Zones to help remove investment and infrastructure barriers.
“The community and business sector in the Goldfields are showing they are ready to take the leadership on solar energy,” said Senator Ludlam.
“Research shows the Goldfields has the best resource in this State, and it has the connector line going back to Perth. We had a great response from locals when we came to Kalgoorlie in February and it’s very important we keep up the momentum.”
Kalgoorlie-Boulder is the largest outback city in Australia; with a population of over 30,000 living in 95,000 sq km. According to Mayor Ron Yuryevich, the City is “endeavouring to become the solar centre of Australia, being ideally located to develop a sustainable solar program.”
Attending the meeting were American solar energy company SolarReserve, the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the local Chamber of Minerals and Energy and other parties. SolarReserve is the company behind the 110 megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant; located in Nevada.
Under the Connecting Clean Energy plan, the Greens would allocate $2 billion to a new Connecting Clean Energy Task Group in the Department of Energy.
The plan is part of the Greens’ recently launched Clean Energy Roadmap, which calls for a substantial extension of Australia’s current Renewable Energy Target of 20 percent by 2020.
Another Greens report released earlier this year, ‘Energy 2029‘, shows how Western Australia’s power needs can be met by 100% renewable energy by 2029; primarily through large-scale solar thermal supplemented by large-scale wind farms, solar PV, biomass, wave and geothermal generators.
