Ingo Weber: Port Augusta ideal for a solar-powered future

IN Australia air pollution kills more than double the number of people who die in road deaths. We need to change our dependency on coal, and Port Augusta is the place to start.

THE significant health impacts from coal burning, resulting in a toxic mixture of substances released into the atmosphere, is well documented and is of great concern to doctors.

Pollution from coal burning contributes to leading causes of death in Western society: lung disease, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Globally 1,000,000 premature deaths are estimated to be caused by coal pollution every year.

In Australia air pollution contributes to the premature death of more than 3000 people every year — more than double the number of Australians killed in road accidents in the past 12 months.

Studies have estimated the health cost from coal pollution to Australia to be more than $2.5 billion a year.

Contrary to past comments made by our Prime Minister, coal is not good for humanity; indeed, it is a major health hazard.

Children are particularly vulnerable as they are far more sensitive to air pollution.

According to research from the 1990s, preschool children in Port Augusta had some of the highest incidences of respiratory illnesses in the state.

In the past, air pollution is likely to have also contributed to adults in Port Augusta having almost double the lung cancer rate of South Australians in general.

Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), a professional medical organisation that raises awareness about the impacts of environmental factors on our health, has been campaigning long and hard for the closure of Alinta’s brown coal-fired power plants in Port Augusta.

DEA considers that there are great health benefits to be gained from Alinta ceasing their coal operations in the very near future.

However, it is paramount to the future health of the Port Augusta residents and workers, that Alinta doesn’t leave altogether, but rather takes part in the necessary renewable energy transition taking place all over the world.

According to engineering thinktank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), Port Augusta is ideally positioned for commercially proven “off the shelf” renewable energy technology with storage Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST).

This technology could provide all the electricity needs for Adelaide and beyond without any of the adverse health impacts described, and it could also fill the anticipated employment and economic void, providing up to 1500 jobs in the construction phase and 360 permanent jobs.

There are at least two large international companies currently building CST (in Spain and the US) keen to build CST right here and now in Port Augusta.

Despite the obvious advantages of having the first large scale solar thermal plant in Australia, built in SA, with the heliostat mirrors potentially made at the Holden car plant, there has been little political vision or leadership to facilitate this employment, economic and growth opportunity.

Surely Port Augusta, a town which has provided electricity for SA over many decades, deserves to be part of the new energy future? A CST plant might just be the best prescription this state has seen in a long time.

Dr Ingo Weber is an Adelaide anaesthetist, GP, a senior lecturer at Adelaide University and Flinders University. He is a member of DEA.