Adelaide aims to be solar city of the future

The Adelaide Advertiser, Page: 15
Saturday, 20 May 2006

We're lucky to live and work in our "City in the Park" that's unique in the world. But our environment is at risk from global warming, the greatest threat facing our planet. South Australia has already taken significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Wehave set a target of sourcing 15 per cent of electricity from renewable energy.

We're on track to reach that target by the end of this year, so we have increased our goal to 20 per cent within a decade. We're going further, too, becoming the first state that will enshrine in law a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. SA is already leading the nation in wind generation, generating more wind power than all other States and Territories combined. We also have more than 45 per cent of the nation's grid-connected solar power.

In other areas, the Million Trees program is seeing three million trees planted throughout our city in a series of urban forests, helping to improve the carbon-absorbing capacity of our green fringe. We've installed solar panels on government buildings on North Terrace, including Parliament House, the Art Gallery, the SA Museum and the State Library, and on Gilles Street Primary School - one of more than 250 schools to be getting solar power. We're going to continue that solar roll-out, funding the installation of panels on the new Adelaide Airport, and Adelaide has been named one of the nation's "Solar Cities of the Future". And solar installations are part of the Adelaide landscape with solar lights installed in Victoria Square generating electricity during the day, and lighting up Adelaide's first sustainable square at night.

And similar lights are popping up around the city on Halifax St and the East Parklands. Adelaide is also going to play host to the International Solar Cities Congress in 2008. We're doing more to harness the wind, too, installing mini wind turbines on government buildings to take advantage of the wind-tunnel effect. We have a much cleaner city because of our nation-leading container deposit scheme and our moves to scrap non re-useable plastic bags.

And we're reducing pressure on our precious water resources. As part of the Water proofing Adelaide program, from July, all new homes must have plumbed rainwater tanks, and we're providing rebates of up to $400 to plumb rainwater tanks into existing homes. Everyone who lives and works in the city can do their part. Instead of driving to work, you can catch one of our fleet of trains and diesel buses, which we have converted to biodiesel - making it one of the cleanest fleets in Australia.

You can ride your bike to work on our network of green cycle paths, which we're expanding along the Glenelg tramline. And in the State Government we're doing our bit, converting half our car fleet to more environmentally friendly fuels by 2010 - stopping more than 2000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere. Westill have a long way to go, but next time you're going through our Parklands let them be a reminder of what you can do locally about the threat of climate change.