With discussions on solar thermal in Port Augusta heating up, it is encouraging that the federal government has linked clean energy innovation funding to real transitions for fossil fuel-dependent communities like this that want to make the switch to renewable energy.

Last week Port Augusta residents, including the veteran power station worker Gary Rowbottom, met with politicians in Canberra to ask for federal support to finance and build a solar thermal power plant to replace the Northern and Playford B coal-fired power plants. Playford B has already been mothballed and Northern is due to close around 8 May.

The majority of Port Augusta residents, including the late mayor Joy Baluch, have been pushing for this for four years, backed by technical research from the climate think tank Beyond Zero Emissions , which I head up.

The closure of the two coal-fired power plants will lead to the loss of more than 300 jobs in Port Augusta. The state and federal governments have known the closures were imminent for more than a year, yet very little strategic planning has been done to help the community to transition.

Why is it that communities are left out of jobs when the governments have known about the opportunity for solar thermal to replace coal generation? It’s time for federal and state governments to think far more strategically about transitioning workers into clean energy jobs to avoid the economic crashes that have been part of the history of many fossil-fuel reliant Australian communities, particularly since the end of the recent mining boom.

The Port Augusta solar thermal project would be the start of good things for Australia, a way for the country to finally get on the path to zero-emissions energy generation. Port Augusta could also stand to tap into the billions of dollars that will be invested in the global transition to clean energy.

Concentrated solar thermal is unique in that it can provide large-scale reliable base load renewable power, underpinning and assisting the operation of the electricity grid. The solar thermal technology uses a field of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s free energy onto a heat receiver mounted on a central tower.

This kind of technology is also unique in having storage built into the system. By using molten salt to store heat that continues to run the turbine overnight, or when the sun isn’t shining, electricity can continue to be generated 24 hours a day.

Concentrated solar thermal systems are large – the Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California is over 300MW, about half the size of an average coal-fired power plant – and sufficient to provide renewable power at scale into the electricity grid. It is estimated that the Port Augusta solar thermal project would employ 1000 construction workers and 50 maintenance and operations workers.

Solar thermal is also a perfect complement to other renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar photovoltaic, biomass and pumped storage hydroelectricity. These are all available technologies to assist Australia in making the transition to 100% renewable energy.

A $2.3 million feasibility study has been completed, funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Alinta and the South Australian government in 2014, and the state parliament has already conducted an inquiry into solar thermal, both studies showing that concentrated solar thermal is a viable replacement energy generation option in the region.

Building solar thermal in Port Augusta is an opportunity to create jobs for local residents, assist the South Australian government to meet its ambitious renewable energy targets and satisfy the wishes of the community.

Australia is the last continent to build large-scale solar thermal: Chile is building it, while Spain, Morocco and the United States all have concentrated solar thermal plants or are in the process of building them. Similarly India and China are also looking at investing in this technology.

The increasing number of concentrated solar thermal projects around the world demonstrates that this technology is an accepted power supply option worldwide. The cost of solar thermal is also falling rapidly. And compared with nuclear, which has an average build time of 12 years, solar thermal wins hands down, with build times as low as two years.

Strategically Australia should be positioning itself to be at the forefront of these developments. Energy superpowers in a rapidly decarbonising world will be those that have access to vast, cheap, clean renewable energy, and Australia is already in the top three countries globally with access to renewable energy resources.

Following the Paris climate agreement, hundreds of towns and cities are transitioning to 100% renewable energy, including Reykjavik in Iceland, Linkoping and Malmo in Sweden, El Hierro in Canary Islands, Barcelona in Spain, Aspen in Colorado and Vancouver in Canada. The list goes on and on.

In Australia, many towns are also already making the transition. Uralla, Yackandanda, Newstead and Byron Bay have all committed to moving to 100% renewables. Byron Bay has announced it will be Australia’s first zero-emissions community, not only transitioning to 100% renewables but also to zero-emissions transport, buildings, waste and land use over a 10 year period The ACT is already putting in place strategies to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030, while South Australia is aiming for zero emissions by 2050, with Adelaide racing Copenhagen to be the world’s first carbon neutral city.

The proposed Port Augusta solar thermal plant could be a great opportunity for the South Australian government to power Adelaide with renewable energy from concentrated solar thermal. If South Australia – and indeed all of Australia – really wants to make the switch to 100% renewable energy, then the Turnbull government’s support of solar thermal in Port Augusta could be the essential next step.