Energy | SA Greens

The Greens believe:

Access to energy is a basic right to which everyone is entitled, regardless of income.
State and local energy strategies must be based upon the principles of ecological sustainability and social equity.
South Australia’s energy policy should be a pillar of a strong national policy to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this is essential to reduce the risks and impacts of the climate crisis.
Government has an important and essential role to play in creating a net zero emission energy sector and industries.
The need for lower greenhouse gas emissions makes it necessary to plan a managed reduction and ultimately a cessation of the use of fossil fuels.
In moving to a net negative greenhouse gas economy, it is essential to minimise the adverse impacts of that transition on affected workers and communities and provide assistance to transitions towards sustainable industries.
Energy prices should reflect the environmental, social, health and other external costs of its production and use.
Incentives for sustainable transformation of the energy sector need to be accompanied by disincentives for the consumption of fossil fuel, in addition to the removal of subsidies to the fossil fuel sector.
South Australia has extensive renewable energy resources which means we are ideally suited to lead the nation and the world to a 100% renewable energy future.
The technologies for clean energy production distribution, efficiency, and storage offer huge opportunities for job creation.
All buildings and appliances need to be energy-efficient and energy conserving.
As an essential utility, regulation of all energy infrastructure must be government controlled, while energy systems should incorporate public, community and privately-owned generation and storage entities, with publicly owned retail, smart transmission and grid distribution systems.
Creating distributed, diverse and competitive energy generation and storage systems will contribute to minimising energy cost for households and businesses.
The extraction of fossil fuels, via coal mining and oil/gas extraction — including coal seam gas, shale gas, tight gas, shale oil and underground coal gasification – pose unacceptable risks to Australia's land, water and industries, such as agriculture, grazing and tourism.
Nuclear power is not a safe, clean, timely, affordable or practical solution to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Greens will:

Adopt measures to achieve the target of net zero or net negative greenhouse gas emissions in South Australian by 2035 or sooner, including phasing out fossil fuels.
End subsidies to the fossil fuel sector.
Provide retraining and transition assistance to communities and workers affected by job transitions towards sustainable industries.
Legislate to ban all new climate-damaging projects in cases where climate-safe alternatives are available and establish a climate impact assessment body to consider the approval of future projects.
Ban exploration and drilling in the Great Australian Bight and other South Australian coastal waters.
Ban all new coal, unconventional gas and underground coal gasification exploration and extraction projects in South Australia.
Install solar panels and battery storage on all suitable government owned buildings, including offices, hospitals, schools and tenanted public housing properties.
Subsidise the installation of solar panels and battery storage for community housing, low income households, and the not-for-profit sector.
Ensure that all households (including renters, apartment dwellers and other households with limited capacity to install solar panels) can access the benefits of renewable energy through their landlords, strata corporations, or through innovative projects such as off-site community renewable energy schemes.
Support greater uptake of domestic and commercial roof-top solar and battery storage through state renewable energy and storage targets and regulated feed-in tariffs.
Remove barriers to entry for domestic and small businesses to feed renewable energy into the grid or participate in peer-to-peer trading of electricity.
Encourage the installation of clean energy generation infrastructure by agricultural producers, business owners, community groups and householders to feed electricity into the grid.
Support additional renewable generation capacity, infrastructure and storage in SA for both domestic consumption and export inter-state.
Support research, development and deployment of processes that will allow South Australian industry to convert renewable energy into an exportable resource.
Support research, development and deployment of sustainable fuels which demonstrably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and do not threaten biodiversity or food security.
Support the creation of a renewable energy export industry, including renewables-generated fuels such as Green Hydrogen, direct connections to neighbouring countries, and the export of technology.
Support research, development and deployment of greenhouse gas neutral technologies for manufacturing and industry, particularly replacing the direct use of fossil fuels in industrial processes.
Reduce energy demand by introducing new and effective Mandatory Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for all residential and commercial buildings.
Offer rebates for retrofitting existing houses and buildings, including rental properties, with energy saving devices and measures.
Promote energy-efficient living choices through public awareness campaigns.
Support mandatory energy labelling for all electrical appliances that includes both the operating and standby power consumption.
Promote the adoption of new technologies that enable consumers to have more control over when and how they manage their electricity use.
Establish a publicly owned, not-for-profit green energy retailer to guarantee the lowest energy prices for low-income households.
Provide support for vulnerable households to access energy efficiency and other local energy measures.
Establish an Indigenous Communities Clean Power Program to ensure that all First Nations communities in South Australia have access to clean, affordable, local renewable electricity.
Regulate to prevent power companies from boosting supply charges and other unavoidable fixed costs so that these remain a small proportion of the energy bill with most charges being related to actual electricity consumption.
Reform National Electricity Market (NEM) Rules to prevent collusion and gaming by power companies.
Ensure that the National Electricity Market (NEM) rules correctly value cheaper renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and remove hidden subsidies to incumbent fossil fuel generators.
Promote further investment in grid-connected battery storage to provide both energy services and also rapid frequency control to help stabilise the grid.
Provide incentives for domestic and business battery storage to help manage and reduce peaks in demand from the grid.
Negotiate commercial demand management contracts with big electricity users to avoid the need for involuntary load-shedding in the general community.
Support development and expansion of robust distribution networks for sustainable alternative fuels and charging facilities for electric vehicles.
Support the development of an electric vehicle manufacturing industry in South Australia.
Support the use of incentives for the adoption of electric and low emission vehicles.
Use the Government's vehicle fleet procurement policies to contribute to the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, including through the use of electric and low emission vehicles.
Support the electrification of South Australia’s public transport system.
Accelerate the undergrounding of power lines in key locations that are at risk of storm or bushfire damage.

(Energy Policy as amended by The Greens SA Policy and Campaigns Council February 2021)

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