‘Really positive feedback’: FCA calls for more renewable projects

Farmers for Climate Action descended on Canberra this morning to highlight how renewable energy projects are making farmers money.

Farmers for Climate Action descended on Canberra this morning to send a message that renewable energy makes farmers money.

With backing from a recent poll of 687 residents across Central Queensland and the Hunter and Illawarra regions of NSW, members of FCA spoke about the benefits of renewable energy projects for farmers, while FCA chair Brett Hall highlighted how renewable projects could assist families and the community.

“Our members know what renewables can do in the community. They provide lots of jobs, there is a benefit for farmers by providing an income, especially in hard times and drought, so we get really positive feedback towards renewable energy from all our members,” Mr Hall said.

Chair of Farmers for Climate Action Brett Hall.

The lobbying comes a day before a planned National Rally Against Reckless Renewables, with farmers gathering outside Parliament House to warn against Labor’s plans for 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

Mr Hall said that giving people a better understanding of the benefits of renewable energy would drive more farmers to participate in such projects.

“This is a new energy and it’s quite lucrative to be involved in the industry because a turbine on your property can bring in over $40,000 a year, and if you’re doing solar set-up, you can achieve $1500 a year per hectare from that operation,” he said.

The FCA’s poll found of 687 people surveyed, 21.6 per cent viewed renewable energy as the biggest opportunity for local regions in the next 20 years, behind tourism (28.9 per cent).

Horsham grain grower Susan Findlay-Tickner hosts five wind turbines from the Murra Warra Wind Farm and 14 transmission towers on her family farm.

She said agriculture was at the forefront of a changing climate, and contributing to the challenge by hosting renewable projects was something she felt really good about.

“For our family and for our farming enterprise, we’ve seen weather patterns change over the past 20 years, and I think we feel that we’re helping to be part of the solution by hosting renewable energy projects on our farm,” she said.

“In the paddocks the turbines take up about a 2 per cent footprint of the paddock, which is fairly negligible for our operations, and farming under and around transmission towers are no more of an inconvenience to us than it would be farming around a tree.”

The poll also found only 7.6 per cent of regional residents named renewable energy projects as a threat to farming in their regions, behind “increased fires and floods driven by climate change” (39.2 per cent), “commercial conduct by big supermarket chains” (18.7 per cent), and “increasing cost of insurance, fertiliser and other inputs” (17.5 per cent).