Energy economists believe they may have found the solution to a looming crisis and soaring prices in the form of virtual power plants.
Wind turbines and solar panels are no longer unknown concepts to rural and regional Queenslanders but now there is another 'clean, green' energy generator hoping to make a name for itself on the market.
Virtual power plants are a network of smaller, individual batteries, that work together in a coordinated way to fuel a single, large power source, which can then provide electricity to the power grid within a localised area.
The size of the batteries varies depending on the desired amount of energy to be produced, ranging from small, container sized batteries, to larger models resembling an air conditioner unit.
Early trials in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, conducted by the Australian Energy Market Operator, generated promising results.
Infinet Energy Analytics founder Linda O'Mullane said a landholder could undertake an 'energy as a service' agreement with a retailer to lease the virtual power plant and reduce their own power prices by producing clean, green energy.
"Instead of 24 cents per kilowatt hour, maybe you're going to pay 18, 17 or 16 cents, something like that," she said.
"Basically you have the asset on your premise, but then you use it, you'll have a cheaper electricity bill than you would otherwise have, plus it would be green.
"It's very much up for grabs right now, so you can do what you want, in any way or form."
Ms O'Mullane said the virtual power plants could benefit producers with differing seasonal loads, such as cotton growers who require different levels of irrigation.
"With farmers who have a very seasonal load, they'll have a system that would fit peak demand during the season, and then during offseason they might have an awful lot of excess generation," she said.
"So this excess generation is then sold on to the market to someone else, where you have a contract with a retailer who's then buying it at a certain price."
Despite the apparent benefits of virtual power plants and other renewable energy technologies, Ms O'Mullane said that the uptake of the systems was quite gradual, partly due to the complicated nature of the technologies.
"What you want at the end of the day, as a consumer, is to not pay an awful lot for electricity, and you don't need to because we can create this all ourselves," she said.
"We just have to be very smart and participate in the markets.
"This is all very new but it's all going in the right direction, not as fast as I would like to have it, but it is at least moving, so one has to be patient."
Renewable energies an inevitable transition or an unreliable option?
Speaking on the future of Australia's energy landscape, Capricornia Chamber of Commerce president Phil Henry said the mining industry was "inevitably" going to be impacted by an upcoming energy transition.
"You'll have energy transition of one sort or another, so you have quite a bit of your engineering sector here supplies the mining sector," he said.
"That will inevitably get impacted over the next 10 years.
"So that's something that does need to be planned for, it's not the political side of whether we should go to renewables or this or that, it's an inevitable transition.
"The impact there is probably more on your smaller communities like your Emeralds and your Moranbahs and places like that."
Not everyone is convinced that renewables are the answer to the impending energy crisis, including Member for Gregory Lachlan Millar who said that it was important to "get back to basics."
"With the increase in energy prices at the moment it just shows you the importance of our coal industry," he said.
"It's all well and good to talk about a transition into renewables but the technology is still to be developed, it's still to be tested.
"Good, mainstream power needs to be there, we need to have reliable power.
"I think what we'll find is people will realise the importance of our coal industry and the importance it has to our energy market."
Mr Miller said that he did not wish to see Queensland face issues such as the 2016 South Australian blackouts, which became a point of contention between those on either side of the renewable energy debate.
"I don't think it [renewable energy] is viable right now," he said.
"I'm not against renewable energy, but let's get back to what we need which is reliable power ... and that comes from the coal industry. That comes from those power generators.
"I believe the coal industry is the best place to provide [reliability]."
