Reported today on ABC news. The coal furnaces at Alinta Energy's...

Reported today on ABC news.

The coal furnaces at Alinta Energy's Port Augusta power station in South Australia's north will go cold today as it goes offline.

The Northern Power Station was disconnected from the network about 9:40am.

Less than a year ago, Alinta Energy announced the station — which is the city's bigger employer — would close after the company struggled to compete with government-backed renewable energy.

Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery said the closure was sad for workers but inevitable.

"The reality is, the technology we are using here is old, the cost structures are high and there's no longer a place for us in the market," Mr Dimery said.

"It was inevitable. It is inevitable that more coal-fired power stations will close into the future."

Renewable energy like ours is they way of the future. We will be the employers of the future. Governments need to wake up and act.