The following organisations have officially endorsed the Save Solar Systems campaign:
Yarra Climate Action Now
Yoland Wadsworth – Principal Fellow and A/Professor McCaughey Centre University of Melbourne
Natalie Wasley- Beyond Nuclear Initiative, Alice Springs
Eco-shout
RMIT branch of the National Tertiary Education Union
The Socialist Party
Solidarity
Postgraduate Environment Network (PEN)
GREEN JOBS, RENEWABLE ENERGY – SUPPORT SOLAR SYSTEMS WORKERS
The building of the first large-scale solar power plant in Australia is in doubt after
its owner, Solar Systems, declared that due to lack of private investment, the company faces collapse. Over 100 Solar Systems workers have already been made redundant.
This is a huge blow to the effort to transition to renewable energy in this country, and shows why direct government support for renewable energy must be stepped up. Construction of the Mildura plant would have provided 1000 renewable energy jobs and powered 45,000 homes.
Solar Systems has already built functioning power systems in three remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
A new production line (near completion) capable of producing hundreds of solar receivers per week, has been installed in the now idle Abbotsford factory. Each receiver is capable of powering 30 – 50 homes. This capacity does not exist anywhere else in Australia.
$125 million of public money has already been promised for the Mildura project, but less than $3 million of this has been released.
We demand that the government immediately intervenes to guarantee (i) that the Solar Systems factory in Abbotsford remains open, (ii) that the redundant workers are reinstated and, (iii) that a large scale solar power plant is built in Mildura.
