QFF have been supporting Queensland farmers to improve their on-farm energy efficiency and navigate the evolving energy landscape for over a decade, advocating for improved energy affordability, reliability, and security across regional Queensland.
Between 2015 and 2022, QFF’s Energy Savers Programs delivered energy efficiency audits to over 300 farms across all agricultural industries throughout Queensland. The QFF team developed a number of case studies and associated resources to share these energy efficiency insights, which are now available through the QFF Queensland Ag Energy Hub.
The Queensland Ag Energy Hub, developed by QFF and supported by the Queensland government, was launched earlier this year providing a central hub for energy efficiency and affordability information for the agriculture sector, including information on tariffs. Tariff reform and regional energy affordability remain priority advocacy items for QFF and our members and are central pillars of our election priorities for the upcoming State Election.
The Ag Energy Hub also features energy news, with industry breakdowns of key energy efficiency opportunities. In addition to the Queensland Ag Energy Hub, QFF also launched the Energy Information Service for Landholders (EISL), a free phone service for farmers and landholders in Queensland providing information and guidance on a range of energy matters.
QFF’s EnergySQ program, supported by Acciona, is currently offering free energy audits to farms in the Southern Downs, Western Downs, Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim regional council areas.
QFF has also led extensive research into energy literacy and the appetite for distributed energy in the regions as well as into consumer owned energy resources, including microgrids, and their potential benefits for regional communities and the agricultural sector.
Across all of QFF’s energy projects and advocacy efforts our focus has always been on ensuring farmers are supported to make informed decisions regarding their energy and land use, to help drive down production costs and increase farm profitability.
With the energy transition now well and truly underway, this has never been more important and QFF has played a key role in advocating the needs of farmers and regional communities on energy policy including work into the Wind Code review, the development of a draft mandatory developer code, the development of Powerlink’s Supergrid Landholder Payment Framework which includes neighbour payment compensation, and representation on the Ministerial Energy Council.
Last year QFF released the Queensland Renewable Energy Landholder Toolkit, to provide information and guidance to those landholders who are considering hosting renewable energy infrastructure on their land. This week, QFF welcomed RELA to its corporate partners program. RELA is Australia’s first landowner aligned renewable energy platform providing valuable support for Queensland landholders to make informed decisions about renewable energy projects on their property.
The energy environment is no doubt going to continue to evolve in the months and years ahead, and QFF will continue working alongside our members and the QFF Water and Energy Policy Committee to continue to support and advocate for Queensland farmers.
You can learn more about all of QFF’s energy programs and services via the Queensland Ag Energy Hub at qldagenergyhub.com.au or by calling the EISL on 07 3329 7500. The Queensland Renewable Energy Landholder Toolkit can be found here https://www.qldagenergyhub.com.au/resources/queensland-renewable-energy-landholder-toolkit