Community to reap the benefits of Dubbo Regional Council's new renewable energy benefit framework

The community hasn't seen a single dollar from the solar farms and Dubbo Regional Council hopes to change that with the implementation of a new Renewable Energy Benefit Framework.

At the October ordinary council meeting, councillors unanimously decided to endorse the preparation of a new framework, to replace the current one, that would ensure community benefits are realised from renewable energy projects in the region.

Councillor Josh Black said it was a "great shame" the state government didn't do compulsory contributions from solar farms.

"This policy that we support should be a good way to help solar and wind farms partner with the community going forward," he said.

Cr Jessica Gough said she would love to see money from the renewable energy go back into the community. A 24-hour police station and upgraded Wellington facilities were on her list of priorities for the money to go towards.

Deputy mayor Richard Ivey said removing the rigid compensation amount so council could negotiate best practice for the proponents would benefit the community.

"Currently there is no policy or procedure for compensating the communities that have large scale solar farms," he said.

"I believe in renewable energy and that it's the way of the future but we are not receiving one dollar from the three solar farms we have, we get nothing out of it.

"This policy will hopefully see them contribute more to the community and we might get better results."

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Revoking the original policy will mean council will not have a guiding monetary value, however it will allow them to negotiate community benefits with development proponents that could be higher than the values in the original policy.

DRC hope the new framework will allow flexibility of the benefit sharing to apply to various projects including community housing, road maintenance, strategic projects and short term accommodation.

The Central West and Orana Renewable Energy Zone is one of five Renewable Energy Zones in NSW and one of the first to be built up.

The Zone includes the majority of the Dubbo Regional Local Government Area, areas of the Gilgandra, Mid-Western and Warrumbungle Local Government Areas.

Chris Swan, Project Director, Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone said Energy Corporation will be leading the development of the REZ.

"We are transitioning now into more action, so you may see that on the ground with site investigations and conversations with local land holders," he said.

"We recognise problems with the roads and the significant use of roads during construction phase...and we recognise the condition isn't where it needs to be with the amount of traffic coming."

Saxa and Gollan Road were brought up as the roads that would need to be used during the development.

"This is 18 to 24 months away," he said.

Executive Director, Planning and Communities Mike Young said they were fully in the implementation phase now.

"We are going to make sure all the benefits flow directly into regional communities and Dubbo LGA," he said.

"We will talk with council before Christmas and early next year to work through funding, roads, accommodation arrangements and more."

Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) seek to group new wind and solar power generation into locations where it can be efficiently stored and transmitted across NSW.

Five zones have so far been identified and will keep NSW electricity reliable as coal-fired power stations retire, delivering large amounts of new energy to power our regions and cities.

The REZs aim to deliver lower wholesale electricity costs and place downward pressure on customer bills through increased competition, while also supporting new local jobs and business opportunities during construction and operation.

The NSW Government anticipates the REZ will unlock three gigawatts of new network capacity by the mid-2020s, enable solar and wind energy farms participating in the REZ to export electricity to the rest of the network and bring up to $5 billion in private investment to the Central-West Orana region by 2030.

A report in respect of the draft Renewable Energy Framework will be provided to Council for consideration at the December 2022 Council meeting.

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