On Thursday July 3rd Alinta Energy announced they had ruled out a hybrid coal/solar power station in favour of a 50MW stand alone solar thermal power station with 15 hours storage in their ongoing feasibility study. This is a great step forward for the campaign and for the community who campaigned for Alinta to make this choice. See below for our press release and a link to Alinta's announcement.

Contact: Daniel Spencer

0423 865 632

daniel.spencer@aycc.org.au

Lisa Lumsden

0439 883 180

Alinta Chooses Solar, Community Celebrates

The Repower Port Augusta Alliance has congratulated Alinta Energy for making the right choice in its feasibility study by choosing to pursue a solar thermal power station with storage, ruling out a hybrid coal-solar option.

“Our community welcomes Alinta’s decision to choose solar thermal with storage, not a hybrid, in their solar feasibility study,” Lisa Lumsden, Chairperson of Repower Port Augusta said. “Here in Port Augusta, our community has been campaigning for years for a base-load solar thermal power station to be built and this decision is a major step forward for the health, economy and environment of our region.”

In the lead-up to the decision, Repower Port Augusta presented Alinta Energy with a banner hand-signed by over 1500 residents asking Alinta to make the right choice for Port Augusta by choosing stand alone solar thermal with storage in their feasibility study.

“Solar thermal with storage gives our community the opportunity to transition away from coal, keep jobs in town and secure our long term future. Alinta has made the right choice today and we look forward to working with them to get this project off the ground” Ms Lumsden said.

Alinta Energy has chosen to continue to study a 50 megawatt solar thermal tower with 15 hours of storage that would be able to provide on demand baseload renewable energy by storing heat energy from the sun in molten salt.

Alinta Energy’s feasibility study received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency which is set to be cut following the Coalition’s first budget if a repeal bill is passed by the senate. While funding for the study is secure, cuts to ARENA would make solar thermal in Port Augusta unlikely to move beyond the study phase as Federal Government funding will be required to get the project off the ground. Repower Port Augusta also argue that a solar thermal project would benefit from the Renewable Energy Target, currently under review by the Federal Government, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation should remaining intact, something that is likely now that Clive Palmer committed his party to voting against any changes to them.

““The construction of a solar thermal power station is an investment that would be of immense benefit to our region and the state,” Ms Lumsden said. “In Port Augusta, we have the space, the sun, the workforce to make this happen, and now we have a company studying exactly how they could do it. The Federal Government needs to get behind this opportunity rather than attacking existing funding for renewable energy,” Ms Lumsden said.

“We’re really encouraged by this major step forward from Alinta and now we’ll be doing all we can to make solar thermal with storage a reality in Port Augusta.”

The Repower Port Augusta Alliance is an alliance of community groups, the Port Augusta City Council, local business, unions, health organisations and environment groups campaigning for a replacement of the Port Augusta coal stations with concentrated solar thermal with storage.

To see Alinta's Milestone Report & Announcement visit: http://alintaenergy.com.au/about-us/power-generation/port-augusta-solar-...