New Queensland Government initiative expected to minimise issues with renewables rollout

The announcement of the Local Energy Partnerships was made by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at the Local Government Association of Queensland conference in Gladstone earlier this week.

The initiative is a $9.25 million investment and involves working with landholders and communities to ensure locals benefit first from energy projects such as wind and solar farms in their region.

As part of the announcement, the Gas Fields Commission's powers are to be expanded to cover renewables.

QFF chief executive officer Jo Sheppard said the program would allow farmers and regional communities to work through the opportunities and challenges presented by the renewable rollout.

"There are a number of federal and state legislative requirements currently in place that solar and wind developers have to adhere to, some of these are currently under review," she said.

"But, there is a need for a tightening of planning frameworks to ensure farmers and agricultural productive land, valuable water resources and the like are protected."

Ms Sheppard said the government's announcement followed advocacy from QFF, council mayors and other community groups for increased support so people were making informed decisions.

She said there were opportunities and risks, and from the perspective of agriculture and regional communities it was important to get support around a whole range of issues.

Some of the risks that Ms Sheppard listed included biosecurity, aesthetic concerns, increased use of regional roads and competition for workers from the emerging industries.

She said one of the risks might be around land use planning in regions which had quality agricultural producing land.

"And how we make sure for future generations that some of that land is actually protected so we can still have a sustainable food and fibre producing industry into the future," she said.

"The other consideration around making sure we protect valuable ag land is - if we are actually serious about achieving net zero (emissions) goals - farmers are in one of the few industries that can contribute to achieving nature positive outcomes."

Richmond Shire mayor John Wharton said he was in favour of renewables, but was getting very concerned about the continuity of solar and wind farms and disposal of their waste when some solar farms could have up to 10,000 solar panels that only lasted 10 years.

Cr Wharton said everyone was targeting out west with renewables and some big corporates were coming along wanting to lease 5000 to 10,000 acres of property.

"But, we don't believe there's any legislation in place to protect the owners of that land," he said.

"These people (the developers) don't want to buy the land, they just want to lease it and we think it needs to be legislated that they're responsible for rehab (rehabilitation of the land) because the waste (of solar panels and wind turbines) is going to be the biggest issue."

Ms Sheppard agreed saying farmers hosting wind or solar farms needed legislative framework to protect them against any potential future risks during the decommissioning stage or if unforeseen things happened during the project build.

"There's also considerations around whether codes of conduct should be required for developers - there are developers who are engaging with the community and acting in a really genuine and positive way and there's developers at the other end of the scale," she said.

"So, from agriculture's perspective and regional communities perspective, we want a bar set...so there's an expectation that there's a minimum best standard as to how they engage with farmers and the community."

Ms Sheppard said the Local Energy Partnerships announcement was going to support further work with peak bodies like QFF, councils, regional leaders and the proponents to work through some of the challenges and risks to rollout of renewables so it goes positively for everyone involved.

"If you look at the transitions, there are going to be developments going on for the next couple of decades so this is not an overnight opportunity or challenge, this is really going to be long term," she said.

"We need to have a sense of urgency around addressing some of those critical issues now because projects are rolling out."

Ms Palaszczuk said she had heard from landowners directly on how important it was that they benefited from our renewable energy future.

"Local voices need to be heard and that's what this partnership is all about," she said.

QFF has developed a landholder toolkit to help farmers if they are approached by a developer to host a wind or solar farm on their property.