Seventy per cent of regional Australians in renewable energy zones support the development of renewable energy projects on local farmland, a new survey has found.
The survey, conducted for lobby group Farmers for Climate Action, found that support for renewable energy developments increased to 73% for people connected to the farming industry, but was conditional on concerns around consultation, project design and decommissioning being met.
Just 17% of respondents said they opposed renewable energy developments, with 8% strongly opposed.
The Farmers for Climate Action chief executive, Natalie Collard, said the results showed the “silent majority” of farmers support the renewable transition, despite an increasingly loud campaign by anti-renewable voices.
Collard said the survey, which included a poll of 1,000 people and a smaller focus group discussion among 19 farmers, including “a lot of detractors”, showed that those who vocally opposed renewable energy developments and those who said they would support them on their land shared the same concerns.
Those concerns were the potential impact of a project on their ongoing use of the land for farming, a fear they would be left with the costs of decommissioning and a general distrust of developers. Whether that translated to a broader opposition to all renewable energy developments depended on the individual’s general trust in government to hold developers to account, Collard said.
Anti-renewable campaigners have marched on Canberra twice and held packed community meetings throughout New South Wales and Queensland, backed by National party politicians and a pledge by the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, that the Coalition would cap renewable energy investment if elected.
Collard said most of the concerns raised could be addressed through the government introducing national standards for the conduct of developers, including guidelines around decommissioning and consultation.
Decommissioning plans, which are already required as part of the approvals process, should be made readily available on developers’ websites, and developers should also use social media to better engage with the community, she said.
Land use concerns could be ameliorated by giving farmers a say in project design, the survey found.
“We know that a lot of developers are already acting to a high standard,” Collard said. “They are not the ones that are letting the sector down.
“Some developers are opting to pay the fine rather than do community consultation. That should not even be an option.”
Farmers who supported renewable energy developments said the income security from hosting a project– which averages $40,000 per wind turbine per annum or $1,200 per hectare for a solar farm – could “drought proof” their business.
A livestock and cropping farmer from NSW told the focus group: “The biggest benefit would be a constant source of income regardless of seasonal conditions and livestock prices. This is very important to me, particularly given the current returns in agriculture.”
Collard said an analysis by the Clean Energy Council found large-scale wind and solar projects could deliver up to $11.7bn to farmers in landholder payments by 2050.
“It’s incredible to me that there are some voices in agriculture that are prepared to take away choice from farmers who want to host renewables and make money from it,” she said. “That’s something I have never seen in Australian agriculture before and I am just shocked that it’s not held to account.”
