South Australia is aiming for 100 per cent net renewable energy generation by 2030, but a consortium of environmental groups has warned of risks posed by renewable projects to the state's biodiversity without better planning.
Eleven groups including Conservation Council SA, Trees for Life, Landcare SA, Zoos SA, Wilderness Society, and Greening Australia make up the SA Nature Alliance, which has called on the state government to rule out energy projects in protected "no-go zones".
Alliance chair Natasha Davis said solar farms were the leading cause of approved native vegetation clearance in the state from 2016 to 2018, with a wildlife habitat loss of more than 2,700 hectares.
"The number of species and ecosystems that are crashing and collapsing around us is unprecedented in history," Ms Davis said.
"We understand the climate crisis is something that threatens humanity, [but] we also know that we are living through a biodiversity crisis.
"We shouldn't be choosing between addressing the climate change crisis and addressing the biodiversity crisis — we need to do both."
Maps needed to avoid renewable, nature conflicts
In a submission to the state government's proposed Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act, the alliance has called for maps to identify regions where renewable projects would be ruled out.
"Every time proposed projects go forward at the moment, the native vegetation clearance comes right at the end of the process," Ms Davis said.
"In submission, we refer to a tool that the Nature Conservancy has developed in the United States called Site Renewables Right.
"It includes many different layers of data, such as flight paths of birds or precious remnant vegetation.
"If we don't do this planning work now, we're going to have more and more conflicts between nature and renewables."
The consortium pointed to a proposal for a desalination plant at or near Point Lowly to support the mining of critical minerals and hydrogen power as a possible point of contention.
"We know for the giant cuttlefish, it's a very critical breeding ground in this area," Ms Davis said.
"We cannot be siting industrial complexes in areas where hypersaline brine may impact on their breeding potential."
Environment minister flags changes to approval process
Climate, Environment and Water Minister Susan Close said the SA Nature Alliance was "absolutely right to be raising these issues".
"At the moment, an individual pastoral leaseholder can enter into an arrangement with a company that wants to put in a solar or wind farm, and the minister just gets to say 'yes' or 'no', we're not involved in building up the case for where it should be, what conditions and so on," Ms Close said.
"What we are looking at is ways in which we can say that 'these areas aren't suitable' and 'these areas are' and then working through with the pastoralists, with the wind farm and solar farm proponents, ways which we can have what we want without doing harm."
Ms Close said South Australia's ambition to be a world-leading renewable exporter was dependent on nature conservation.
"We will not be able to sell products to places like Europe or the United States if we don't meet very high environmental standards so, as a trading state, we need to make sure that we're doing the right thing for the environment, but also for our economy and that's why we need to get this right," she said.
The minister also addressed concerns of saline discharge from desalination plants.
"There is always rigorous scientific work that's done to check that we're not putting too much saline water into the sea, and therefore causing damage," Ms Close said.
"It's a legitimate question to ask, but it is one that is being addressed and always is with desalination plants."
