United States Consul General Michael Kleine hails South Australia’s clean energy

SA has a huge chance to profit from the US President’s $500bn clean energy revolution, according to America’s consul-general.

South Australia has a huge opportunity to capitalise on President Joe Biden’s clean energy agenda because of the state’s world-leading embrace of renewable energy, says United States Consul General Michael Kleine.

President Biden has vowed to invest more than $500bn during the next decade in clean energy and innovation – twice the sum, in today’s dollars, of the Apollo program which put man on the moon.

He also has outlined plans to rally the world to urgent and additional action by convening a global summit.

United States Consul General Mike Kleine, when he was in Adelaide in 2019. Picture: Dean Martin

Mr Kleine on Friday discussed SA’s opportunities to benefit from Mr Biden’s agenda, talking to Premier Steven Marshall and Trade and Investment Minister Stephen Patterson.

“I think they’re (SA’s opportunities) really big, that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about,” Mr Kleine said.

“The premier has been very forward-leaning about targets for South Australia, he’s talking about 500 per cent renewable by 2050, when most of the world isn’t anywhere close to that."

Mr Kleine said his talks also involved exploring opportunities in the emerging hydrogen fuel sector.

SA’s Climate Change Action Plan, released in December last year, sets a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The plan says this transformation to a net zero emissions economy, coupled with becoming a national and international clean energy exporter, could mean achieving a renewable energy level that is more than 500 per cent of current local grid demand by 2050.

Mr Kleine linked the opportunity to SA’s space sector growth since 2018, which includes: the Australian Space Agency’s establishment at Lot Fourteen; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s involvement in the bigdata Living Lab at that site; and 30 NASA scientists working with Japan to co-ordinate last December’s landing of a capsule containing an asteroid sample at Woomera test range.

US President Joe Biden. Picture: Saul Loeb / AFP

Former US vice president Al Gore in 2006 said SA’s adoption of renewable energy made the state a world leader in the battle against global warming, praising former premier Mike Rann.

“In SA, you have probably one of the best examples of any state in the entire world where you see how leadership can make a tremendous difference in promoting renewable sources of energy. I travel all over this planet looking at this issue and you should know that SA really does stand out,” Mr Gore said at the time.

Mr Kleine, who next month will lead a US trade delegation to Adelaide focusing on the health sector, also visited the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).