Billions in the bush: Energy shift delivers $1 billion to farmers and $200 million to regional communities by 2030

Farmers are set to receive more than a billion dollars in landholder payments from hosting renewable energy projects by the year 2030, as clean energy continues to make farms more productive, a new report from Farmers for Climate Action and the Clean Energy Council has revealed.

The report, Billions in the bush, found farmers and landholders were likely to receive between $0.9 and $1.1 billion from clean energy projects in the coming five years with a further $213 million contributed to regional and rural communities including through community benefits funds, sharing schemes and local household electricity bill contributions.

The report also found: 

• Farmers and landholders are expected to receive between $7.7 billion and $9.7 billion in direct payments between 2024 and 2050.
• Community contributions in rural and regional areas are likely to be nearly $2 billion by 2050.

Farmers for Climate Action CEO, Natalie Collard, said clean energy was making farmland more productive. 

 “Australia’s clean, green farmers have been hosting clean energy since the windmill was invented,” Ms Collard said. 

 “Hosting modern clean energy helps our farmers continue their traditions. Farmers that choose to host renewables are farming sheep and cattle around wind turbines and under solar panels, creating a double income from the land,” she said.  

 “Farmers are now typically offered more than $40,000 rent per turbine per year and up to $1500 per hectare per year for solar panels and studies confirm sheep which graze under the panels are showing improved wool yields.” 

 Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton, said, in addition to offering farmers a guaranteed income that isn’t connected to fluctuating commodity prices or impacted by extreme weather, renewables are breathing new life into communities.

“The clean energy transition is not only keeping the lights on as coal plants reach the end of their technical life; they’re creating jobs and alternative income streams right across communities," he said.

He said these payments are part of a broader pattern of regional communities receiving the economic benefits of renewable energy projects. 
 
 “Modelling by the Regional Australia Institute shows that large scale wind and solar projects (not including pumped hydro or standalone battery storage) could generate up to $68 billion in economic activity across Australia in the next four years alone.” 
 
 Western Victorian grain and wind farmer Susan Findlay Tickner said her family’s farm had been farming around transmission towers for fifty years and around their wind turbines for a decade. 
 
 “We basically make two incomes from the land: one from cropping and one from wind turbines which take up 1 per cent of the land on the farm,” Ms Findlay-Tickner said. 
 
 “The clean energy rent has made our farm more productive and more profitable. It also makes the farm far more attractive for our children and I’m really proud of the community benefits it provides.” 
 
More than 40 per cent of Australia’s electricity now comes from renewable sources, including hydro, solar and wind, the majority of which are located in regional and rural areas.

ENDS

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Les White
Farmers for Climate Action (FCA)
les@lockslie.com
+61 409 805 122

Liam Straughan
Clean Energy Council Media Officer
+61 409 470 683