Like Brandenburg, South Australia also aspires to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2033. In 2023 non-hydro renewable energy supplies about 66% of the state’s electricity, 24% from solar power and 44% from wind power. Growth has been rapid: in 2000 renewables supplied just 1% of the state’s electricity needs.
In 2002 the State Government had planned for 26% of combined wind and solar, launching a coordinated effort linking investors, locations and supply contracts. There was an early focus on the Upper Spencer Gulf and the so-called ‘Iron Triangle’ across Port Pirie (with a lead smelter), Whyalla (with a steel plant), and Port Augusta (with a coal-fired power plant, closed in 2016). The Gulf has very good potential for wind and solar power and is well connected to transmission lines, it also has an industrial labour force (albeit with marked social-economic disadvantage) – all factors making it attractive for renewables investors.
As in Karnataka and Brandenburg, renewable energy in South Australia has gone through various stages. There was initial enthusiasm, especially in Port Augusta where it was seen as offering a ‘just transition’ away from dependence on coal-fired power. The local power station had been a major employer and when its private owner, Alinta, announced closure in 2015, a local campaign demanded a new large-scale solar thermal power plant to replace it.
Alinta closed the plant early, in 2016, with no direct transition to renewables. Yet the campaign had wider effects as the region became a focus for renewable investors. This led to the construction of several large private windfarms including at Lincoln Gap, with 101 turbines on 20,000 ha, and at the Port Augusta Renewable Park, with 50 turbines on 5,000 ha. Large solar is less common, though there is an 800-ha solar farm near Port Augusta, owned by the Bungala Aboriginal Corporation, and a 20-ha solar thermal plant, Sundrop, dedicated to desalination and heating for greenhouse tomatoes.
After an initial wave of investment, state regulations were tightened in 2019, with rules on cumulative impacts, proximity to townships and on access to ‘areas of high environmental, scenic or cultural value’. There were also measures on public notification, decommissioning, grid stability, noise levels and wildlife corridors, and, with this, an increase in the allowable height for turbines height from 150 to 240 metres. These measures coincided with a decline in applications, in part with the announcement of a 900-km interconnector to New South Wales due to be completed in 2025, which appeared to draw proposals to the west of the state.
A third phase in renewables development has now come to the region with a growing focus on ‘downstream’ uses, especially for renewables-based ‘green’ hydrogen, both for export and for use ‘on-shore’, such as at the Whyalla steel plant. The state government’s Hydrogen Jobs Plan announced in 2023 is now seen as generating a new wave of interest in renewables in the region.
Renewables planning in South Australia has been centralised in the State Commission Assessment Panel, which runs consultations and public hearings. Companies seek to define their projects as state-significant ‘Crown Developments’, preventing any appeal to the minister’s final decision; with this they have access to an expedited ‘pre-lodgement service’ with a sponsoring department, identifying ‘essential State infrastructure’.
Local authorities are sidestepped by the State-level planning process though could they enable more community participation and involvement. Councils collaborate in a Spencer Gulf Cities group, which recently promoted the area as a ‘renewable energy “powerhouse”’. Their formal role is limited and they do not even receive tax revenue from renewables as electricity is exempted from local rates. Local councils produced a report in 2018 to challenge this exemption, but the state government has refused to address it.
The tax question, which sees local ratepayers subsidising large-scale global renewables companies, has been a lightning-rod for discontent. Concerns centre on the lack of local benefits, especially in terms of employment. Contractors bring their own workforce and draw on the local labour market only for low-skilled workers, employed on a casual basis. There is no local labour force plan and work is intermittent, though some local employment agencies establish recurring contracts.
Reflecting decades of regional disadvantage, the region has very few businesses able to take up work in the industry. State-level policy does little to address the skills gaps. Planners rely on claims that anticipated downstream industries will bring the jobs, rather than the renewables sector. In the meantime, most of the new jobs come indirectly, in terms of health, transport, retail and hospitality.
As in Karnataka and Brandenburg, host landowners are the main beneficiaries. Lands are arid and wind power has minimal impact on farm income. Each turbine can earn an annual rental income of up to AUS25,000 for about 30 years; 40% of the state is on pastoral leases, land appropriated from local Indigenous peoples and granted to settlers by the colonial authorities. These landowners now benefit the most from renewable energy, re-affirming colonial dispossession and exacerbating inequality.
There is change, though, as land rights gain recognition. The Federal Government was forced to recognise Native Title with the 1992 Mabo case and federal legislation in 1994 enabled Aboriginal Peoples to claim title to lands. After a 28-year struggle the Nukunu and Barngarla peoples gained Native Title in the region from 2016. Some state-owned ‘Crown lands’ have been returned and Traditional Owners have gained some negotiating rights over leased state lands whenever there is any change in tenure arrangements, such as for renewable energy.
To date, renewables companies have been responsible for a range of ad hoc and highly divisive ‘consent’ arrangements. As one Native Title holder stated, ‘I’ve had no good experience with renewable energy yet, just a lot of indignity and pain’. An exception is the Bungala solar farm which brought benefit via a lease agreement to employ Aboriginal workers and contractors.
With the Native Title outcome, the Barngarla Traditional Owners (BDAC) signed a ground-breaking land-use agreement in 2022, securing co-ownership as well as leasehold income from a large solar farm on Crown lands. Royalty payments from mining companies are often paid to Traditional Owners but shared ownership is virtually unknown, except in a growing range of renewable energy projects.
The Barngarla outcome is seen as a major breakthrough. The equity stake means that ‘not only are BDAC the landholders and landlords for the entire project, but we will also have a shareholding in the project, making us – the local First Nations People for the area – part-owners of one of the largest renewable energy plants in the State’. With this, arguably a new phase of co-ownership in renewable energy development will be opened.
With 40% of renewable energy at the national level to be located on Indigenous lands, co-ownership has grown. In 2023 there were a dozen renewable energy projects jointly owned with local Indigenous groups; the National Native Title Council stated this required a ‘re-conceptualisation of the role of First Nations in development’. There is no reason why this model for social ownership should not be extended to other local populations or organisations, redefining renewable energy for regional development.