Cost of living pressures are being felt by consumers and businesses throughout Australia. For Queensland farmers these rising costs are experienced across all key inputs including labour, fuel, fertiliser and of course energy.
QFF, with the support of the Queensland Government, recently launched two new resources to provide Queensland farmers and landholders with a central source of information regarding on-farm energy savings, government and industry support opportunities, tariffs and more.
The Energy Information Service for Landholders (EISL) is a new phoneline service that operates Monday to Friday from 8:30am – 5pm. The EISL can provide farmers with up-to-date information on a range of energy matters including on-farm energy savings opportunities, hosting renewable energy infrastructure, tariffs, and other energy related enquiries.
The EISL service is supported by a new website, the Queensland Ag Energy Hub which showcases case studies from farms that have successfully implemented on-farm energy savings opportunities, as well as a broad range of resources and industry specific energy efficiency opportunities.
One of these resources is the Queensland Renewable Energy Landholder Toolkit, released in July 2023, which offers landholders practical guidance and detailed considerations to think through if they are approached by a renewable energy developer.
In addition to these two new resources, QFF are continuing to assist farmers to better understand and manage their energy consumption and identify opportunities to increase their energy efficiency through two on-farm energy audit programs.
The Energy Southern Queensland program (EnergySQ), which launched in April 2023 in partnership with ACCIONA Energía, has been assisting growers and producers in the Southern Downs, Western Downs, Toowoomba, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley and Goondiwindi regional council areas to identify tangible energy efficiency gains on their farms.
The Queensland Business Energy Saving and Transformation – Agriculture (QBEST-Ag) energy efficiency program is also assisting large energy users via detailed audits of energy intensive farm equipment.
The scale and pace of the renewable energy roll-out in Queensland is not slowing down and we need to ensure that farmers and landholders are supported to make informed decisions about their operations so that they can navigate the challenges and opportunities in the energy space.
The Energy Information Service for Landholders can be accessed by calling 07 3329 7500 and the Queensland Ag Energy Hub can be found at www.qldagenergyhub.com.au. To learn more about QFF’s on-farm energy programs, visit www.qff.org.au.