An emerging challenge in the transition to clean energy in regions such as New England, NSW, is land-use conflict, and the new practice of conservoltaics may be one solution. Conservoltaics refers to the process of combining solar energy production and biodiversity conservation and restoration.

Glenn Christie of Succession Ecology is rolling out conservoltaic initiatives (or “ecovoltaics” as he calls it) with great results in South Australia. Christie works with developers to build biodiversity on mid to large-scale solar farms in the red soil country.

“In this arid climate, we focus on native ground cover as a means to improve biodiversity along with efficiency for energy generation,” Christie said.

“Animals such as lizards and birds can thrive in the protected environment beneath the solar panels. Plus, the groundlayer keeps the panels cooler, thereby improving efficiency. Having groundcover  results in less dust, so once again, efficiency is improved and maintenance costs are reduced.” 

It’s a practice that a local collaboration is looking to bring to the New England renewable energy zone (REZ), situated halfway between Sydney and Brisbane on land traditionally managed by First Nations Custodians including Anaiwan, Banbai, Dunghutti and Gumbaynggirr. The REZ is part of a NSW government plan to produce 6-8GW of clean energy as aging coal-fired power stations are retired.  

While the shift from fossil fuels to renewables will help mitigate climate change, community members and environmentalists are concerned about the local impact that construction of wind and solar farms may have on wildlife habitats and ecology. 

The concerns follow conservation losses experienced recently in the region due to Black Summer bushfires, drought and other development such as new industrial and housing estates. 

Shared land-use options for agricultural land 

The practice of agrisolar (or agrivoltaics), in which sheep graze under panels, bees are kept or vegetables tended in interrows between arrays, for example, is beginning to address the potential conflict between land-use for renewable energy and agriculture. Early studies of co-benefits are promising, and in 2021, Clean Energy Council published the Australian Guide to Agrisolar for Large-Scale Solar to collate the early findings of agrisolar research and practice in Australia and internationally.   

Could a similar harmony be found to exist with conservation and renewable energy generation? Is it possible to not just avoid high conservation areas, but also to improve biodiversity on sites where under the prior agricultural land-use and drought it had suffered?

University of New England’s Eric Nordberg and James Cook University’s Lin Schwarzkopf have recently published a research summary of initial findings of the role solar farms can play in improving biodiversity, along with identifying gaps where further research is needed.

“The benefit of renewable energy in reducing carbon emissions is well known. But more work is needed to understand how solar farms can benefit wildlife,” Mr Nordberg said in an article he wrote in February for The Conversation. 

“Research is also lacking on how to locate, configure and manage solar farms to best enhance biodiversity. Collaborations between industry, land managers and researchers are needed so clean energy production and conservation can go hand-in-hand.”

CPA secures FRRR funding to develop a guide to bring better biodiversity on solar farms in the New England

CPA has secured a grant to co-ordinate a Guide to Better Biodiversity on Solar Farms, with support from the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal’s Strengthening Rural Communities Program.

The Guide will include strategies and case-studies to improve conservation planning and implementation on solar farms, with a focus on plant and animal communities that are endemic to the Northern Tablelands and Nandewar bioregions, in which the New England sits. It will draw on the collective experience of ecologists, conservation groups, landowners and solar farm operators.

Dave Carr is Principal Ecologist for Armidale-based consultancy Stringybark Ecological and will be a key collaborator on the Guide. For 30 years he has worked to restore and protect native vegetation, with a focus on the Nandewar and Northern Tablelands bioregions, where the New England REZ is located.  

“Solar farms present a set of opportunities and constraints for managing biodiversity in a fragmented landscape,” Mr Carr wrote in a letter of support for the application CPA made for grant funding to FRRR to produce the Guide. 

“Opportunities include: improvements in the condition and structure of the groundlayer vegetation; enhancement of habitat for fauna that depend on the groundlayer; improvement in extent and condition of riparian zones; and establishment of connectivity for wildlife using boundary plantings.” 

“It gives us hope to see collaborations such as RGI which bring diverse stakeholders together to plan and achieve better conservation outcomes for renewable energy projects,” said Heidi McElnea, who is coordinating the consultation and production of the Guide for CPA.   

“What we’re lacking right now in the New England is relevant information which can streamline the process for planning solar farms which include improved conservation outcomes,” McElnea said. 

“We’re fortunate in the production of the Guide to be able to draw upon research and experience from elsewhere in Australia and overseas, as well as our diverse groups’ expertise in the New England. It will be exciting to have more sustainable developments underway which provide an opportunity for tracking and improving biodiversity outcomes. The potential is enormous.”

The Guide to Better Biodiversity on Solar Farms will be workshopped with stakeholder groups in late 2023 and available in print and online in early 2024. We thank the FRRR for supporting this important work.

The energy transition is bringing the promise of jobs to regional Australian communities. Some communities will be experiencing an influx of energy projects for the first time. Others, like the Latrobe Valley (‘The Valley’) in Gippsland, Victoria, are moving from coal fired power generation to new decentralised renewable energy projects. Our approach to workforce readiness and coordination in regional Australia will vary depending on the skill sets available within the local labour market. For example, preparing the renewable energy workforce in The Valley will be a very different endeavour compared to the New England region in New South Wales.

For regions that have played a key role in producing coal fired power, news of alternative livelihoods on the horizon is providing a much needed sense of security as the coal power sector contracts. As we decarbonise, we must embed protections, such as skills (re)training and alternate job creation, for workers and communities economically reliant on the fossil fuel industry. These are important aspects of a just transition – a transition that is fair and just. 

In this way, the task of worker transition and workforce readiness has many moving parts; like building a house, foundations need to be laid, and things need to fit together at incremental stages. Flourishes can be added, but the labour of some key groups will be instrumental in making it a smooth process. In the case of Gippsland, workforce readiness and transition is being shaped by government (state, local and to a lesser degree, federal), industry (coal and renewable energy), education providers (TAFE, Universities and registered training organisations (RTOs)), unions and community. Importantly, much of this work has been done through partnerships and collaborations.

The Victorian state government has ambitious renewable energy targets – 40% by 2025 and net zero by 2045. To achieve this, the government has established a mix of policies and initiatives including: 

• six renewable energy zones (REZ) across the state (one of which sits across Gippsland)
• a new government body to coordinate transmission infrastructure upgrades and development (VicGrid), and 
• Australia’s first offshore wind (OSW) zone located off the coast of Gippsland. 

The Latrobe Valley, in Gippsland, Victoria has produced the state’s energy for over 100 years. In 2017, one of its brown coal power stations Hazelwood – Australia’s (then) most polluting – closed with only 5 months’ notice, meaning 400 staff and 300 contractors were set to lose their jobs. A range of reactive measures put in place meant that many workers were able to find new roles, move into retirement or retrain. Yet the lesson from Hazelwood has been that worker transition takes time and has deep flow on impacts in communities. There are now three remaining coal power stations all likely to close by 2045, meaning a carefully orchestrated approach to moving workers into new industries will need to take place. Sitting at the nexus of a fading industry and an emerging one means the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland are arguably at the epicentre of Victoria’s energy transition.

But what does this mean for the workers? How can jobs be created in a coordinated way? Who are the players shaping regional livelihoods?

Government: Federal and state 

As we mentioned in a recent blog, the federal government recently formed Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) and commissioned it to undertake a Clean Energy Capacity Study. The study is yet to be finalised and findings released, yet the energy transition continues apace. Like the Net Zero Authority, these are critical pieces of work that are catching up on a decade of delay in federal politics.

While there are several election promises that are yet to materialise, the Victorian state government has a few examples of tangible workforce coordination efforts already in place. Its promise to revive the former State Electricity Commission (SEC) was largely well received. The SEC’s remit centres on funding and investing in skills, training and coordination of the renewable energy transition workforce. The state government anticipates that the SEC and the state’s renewable targets will create upwards of 59, 000 new energy related jobs. Attention is also on supporting secondary students with stronger VCE pathways to working in the renewable energy sector. Soon vocational education and training delivered to secondary students (VETDSS) will become compulsory, with renewable energy subjects being taught in the future. Further investment has been earmarked for a SEC Centre of Training Excellence that will oversee courses and accreditation for the renewable energy industry, and hydrogen and wind worker specific training centres.

The Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA)

More locally, the Latrobe Valley Authority, a decentralised arm of state government that oversees regional development in the Valley has been working to map, analyse and coordinate energy sector employment. In partnership with the local university, Federation Uni and TAFE Gippsland, the LVA produced the Gippsland Energy Skills Mapping Report. They’ve also just released a Latrobe Valley and Gippsland transition plan.

Education providers

Melbourne University has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Flotation Energy, an offshore wind company with plans to develop in the Gippsland OSW zone. Their collaboration will extend from a research / industry partnership, to providing a pipeline of graduates ready for the OSW sector.

Federation University, which has campuses in Gippsland and Ballarat, plays a significant role in preparing the workforce of tomorrow. Through its Asia Pacific Renewable Energy Training Centre (APRETC), it offers training on Australia’s first 20-metre replica wind tower and it is the first provider of apprenticeships for Blade Technicians. APRETC is a unique industry, government and tertiary provider collaboration and is a Global Wind Organisation (GWO) certified training institute. Federation Uni is also a partner in the Morwell Innovation Centre, Gippsland Hi-Tech Precinct – along with TAFE Gippsland, Gippsland Tech School and Latrobe City Council.

TAFE Gippsland offers certificate III in engineering with a pathway to a degree in engineering offered in collaboration with Federation Uni. It also offers short qualifications like the course in New Energy Technology Systems that trains electricians (and others) to become accredited technicians in the design and installation of new energy systems that are grid-connected. The TAFE is also working on developing the certifications needed to work in the offshore wind sector. 

TAFE Gippsland and the ‘jobs and skills expo working group’, led by TAFE Gippsland, Latrobe Valley Authority and Gippsland East Local Learning & Employment Network GELLEN, recently held a youth jobs and skills expo to coincide with the Gippsland New Energy Conference. Over 300 high school students from the region got a taste of the many different available jobs and pathways. With the long lead times, young people are well positioned to benefit from new industries such as OSW, but more needs to be done to get students excited about the opportunities and to have clear pathways for them. This year’s jobs and skills expo will hopefully be the spark for some local secondary students to become the renewable energy workers of the future.

Industry

Star of the South (SoS), Australia’s most advanced OSW project, has been on the ground in Gippsland for several years, participating in various region wide forums and initiatives. Recently SoS commissioned and released a report that analysed the compatibility of skills from other sectors and the OSW industry. Targeted primarily at workers looking to transition, it identified that there is a high amount of skills cross-over from coal, gas and oil, and offshore oil and maritime services with OSW.

Industry representatives, from old energy to new energy, actively participate in a monthly Regional Skills Network coordinated by TAFE Gippsland. It has 40-60 members from the energy sector, and there is a real sense of collaboration; the sector is coming together and genuinely trying to build something new and effective.

But is this all enough?

There is a significant amount of effort being put into not only preparing Gippsland (and Victorians) for the jobs of tomorrow, while also ensuring that we can achieve our emissions reduction targets as we have the skills, knowledge and expertise to do so. But are all the activities listed above enough? 

Gippslanders still fear that the large-scale projects, like transmission lines, battery storage projects, renewables and OSW will still require a large influx of workers, which will put pressure on already strained services like housing, childcare and education. Although the region may already have a workforce with similar skills to new emerging sectors like offshore wind (OSW), it’s not a simple case of switching jobs for jobs; there is already a strain on the skills and training system and a shortage of apprentices in trades. 

In Gippsland, locals often refer to the ‘De-Sal effect’, being the rapid and region-wide drain of apprentices and skilled workers drawn to a big infrastructure project, in this case the Wonthaggi desalination plant that became operational in 2012. Young apprentices were lured to the higher wages offered by the project, leaving not only their apprenticeships behind, but later when the project ended they also left the region in search of the next opportunity. This drain of workers from Gippsland created a sense of boom and bust, with long term ripple effects still felt through the social fabric of the community.

Renewable energy projects tend to have uneven job cycles with more jobs during construction than in operations; hence, there is a real need to try to sequence construction timelines across the region to help create a pipeline of work. Similarly, there is a whole suite of professions in the wider renewables ecosystem, such as ecology studies, cultural heritage, community engagement, maintenance, operations and project management that all inherently benefit from being locally-specific and locally based. Global companies need to be incentivised or regulated to have local offices so that the full benefits of renewable energy employment can be realised by regional host communities.

Coordinating the workforce in order to meet our emissions targets, is not solely about having the right number of training and job spots. It’s also about supporting people to know about them and have the confidence to take them up. Reaching labour needs of the transition will require supporting people into the workforce who face significant barriers, e.g. long term unemployed, migrants, folks on correction orders – these people will require specialised and coordinated support at a very local level to be able to join the workforce opportunities of renewables, but with a lot of very rewarding outcomes.

But if transition is done right, and locals across Gippsland are supported into meaningful, well-paid work in their communities, then the opportunities are huge! The energy transition can play a lead role in creating thriving, dynamic, connected and prosperous regional futures.

By Elianor Gerrard, Community Power Agency Engagement Coordinator

The renewable energy transition could be the opportunity needed to breathe new life into rural and regional Australia. It offers a huge opportunity, too, for regions who have hosted fossil fuel extraction or processing as one of their key economic activities in the past. 

More to the point, the renewable energy transition needs rural and regional Australia in order to meet the emission-reduction targets set by state and federal governments to prevent excessive global warming and to keep the lights on as coal fired power stations retire. The time is now for governments to work collaboratively with regional communities around issues such as workforce and local business readiness. When Prime Minister Albanese announced at the Jobs and Skills Summit in September 2022 that he would task Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) to commission a capacity study on the clean energy workforce, JSA was not yet in existence. While its research, once completed, may prove useful in forming a national approach, starting from scratch is a time and cost-intensive approach that has seen deadlines being pushed back for its Clean Energy Capacity Study, originally expected in June this year.

Since then, we’ve also seen the announcement  of a new National Net Zero Authority, 

While a strategic, coordinated and quality approach is much needed, we’ve no time to lose in readying our regional and rural communities for the changes that are already, in many cases, underway. 

We need an approach to workforce and local procurement that works to build capacity in existing organisations and businesses in communities; even while those at the top are deliberating on how to solve the skill shortages and worker availability that we are seeing across the country. 

There’s a whole suite of jobs created by renewable energy projects coming to regional towns, such as: 

• Professional services such as cultural heritage and archeology, planning, surveying, ecology, project management, business, communications, recruitment, engagement, technology and agricultural consultants.
• Civil services such as earthworks and road construction, along with fencing and landscaping. 
• Trades of different kinds, with electricians, building and construction among the most in demand. 
• Supporting services such as hospitality, health and accommodation.

Regional and rural communities are well-placed to navigate resourcing and preparing for the renewable energy transition. Yet, they need assurance that the work they are doing, or the initiatives they may take to scale-up to meet new opportunities from the clean energy industry, will not be undermined by city-based decision-makers who are currently shaping a centrally-controlled, rather than co-designed approach to the challenge.

This lack of involvement creates an environment of uncertainty for our regional communities that does not favour growth and capacity building.    

Community groups, small businesses and social services that hold regional communities together as they adapt to changing local environments – neighbourhood centres, crisis accommodation for those feeling the impacts of a sudden tightening of the housing market, and assistance with job readiness – are also key players in managing social cohesion, as well as workforce coordination. 

Last month, the Centre for Economic Policy Development released Making our way: Adaptive capacity and climate transition in Australia’s regional economies. The study recommends that with an “adaptive capacity framework, governments can better understand the specific strengths, needs and capabilities of local communities, and work with them to develop more effective and appropriate responses. This approach will increase economic diversity, build resilience and deliver investments that take communities where they want to go.” 

What might this look like on the ground in regional communities, in the case of renewables? We need a resourced approach to helping local organisations and businesses work with state governments and project proponents to understand the upcoming opportunities and what is needed to take these up. Where there are gaps, people need to be supported to co-design localised solutions. Where there are challenges, they need to be supported to work collaboratively to solve them. There also needs to be hyper localised support to assist people to understand the opportunities for training and work, and encouraged to see a future for themselves in the renewables boom.

It also means investing in (rather than cutting the budgets of) the training organisations that are going to be delivering key courses, of which TAFE is a key player.

There are many things we could be doing on the ground to get our workforces and businesses ‘renewable-ready’. What the Government could do right now is to acknowledge the work organisations are currently doing on the ground, and provide some confidence that this work will continue to be valued into the future. 

Regional and rural Australia don’t want things done to them; it’s time to move towards policy design and project roll-outs that happen with regional communities. 

Really, there’s no time to waste.