At a forum held earlier this week, the Regional Area Planning and Development Board said their vision is to boost renewable energy and mitigate negative drought impacts.
The forum, held at the LGAQ and led by prominent economist and renewable energy expert Professor Ross Garnaut, gathered leading renewable energy companies and potential investors to discuss RAPAD’s vision for renewable energy.
Dorean Erhart, LGAQ principal advisor for climate change and the Great Barrier Reef said it was a fantastic initiative that a group of councils had created such a big vision.
“It came about because of the need to address their economic vulnerability,” Ms Erhart said.
Ms Earhart said RAPAD considered the region’s strength was, in addition to agriculture, the 300 days of sunshine the area has each year.
“What is crippling the agricultural industry could potentially transform their economy,” Ms Erhart said.
LGAQ principal advisor for water and sewerage infrastructure Arron Hieatt said the council was proactively responding to an opportunity in their region.
“The central west region in Queensland has a lot of renewable energy potential, that is both solar energy, geo-thermal energy and wind energy. There’s a lot of different forms of renewable energy out there,” Mr Hieatt said.
Mr Hieatt said everyone at the forum agreed that council should pursue renewable energy options.
“This aligns with the Queensland government’s election commitment to provide renewable energy.
“The target is to have 50% of the energy in Queensland be renewable by 2030,” Mr Hieatt said.