If a new multi-million-dollar renewable energy project wanted to begin construction near your town, how would you want the community to share in its rewards?

For grain farmer Susan Findlay-Tickner, who has hosted the Murra Warra Wind Farm on her property between Warracknabeal and Horsham for the past decade, the answer lies in community benefit sharing.

“It is so important that a whole community benefits from a project, not because they have to look at it, or drive around it, or see it, but because they are multi-generational, incredibly big projects within rural communities, and those communities should benefit from having them constructed and located within them,” she told the Brolga.

What is community benefit sharing?

Community benefit arrangements vary widely across Australia. 

There's no standard formula: some developers opt for broad-based approaches - like paying for a percentage of every household's electricity bills - while others focus on targeted grants to community groups, scholarships, funding for sports clubs, or investment in local infrastructure. 

The most successful programs ask the community what it actually wants, and inject money into the community where it is most needed.

The Murra Warra Wind Farm distributed $103,000 in community grants to not-for-profit and community groups across the Horsham, Yarriambiack and Hindmarsh shires.

Laharum Football Netball Club received $20,000 of that funding to upgrade the lighting at Cameron Oval, a vital hub in the Grampians community.

At the Mt Gellibrand Wind Farm near Colac, wind power revenue has led to the distribution of $570,000 so far this year to Victorian community groups. 

Among the recipients was Let’s Talk Colac, which used its funding to raise mental health awareness via the Colac and District Football Netball League’s Let’s Talk Round.

Findlay-Tickner believes that there’s room to grow.

“The renewable energy industry is an evolving industry. It’s relatively new to Australia, but it is evolving, so maybe that was the old-fashioned model where we just handed out cash, which is a nice way to feel good about things,” she said.

Findlay-Tickner says the next evolution of community benefit schemes could see the wind farm operators pitching in to help with the system upgrades that would allow local communities and farms to access the cheap renewable energy hosted in the regions, and reduce their reliance on diesel.

Power poverty in the regions

Although much of Australia’s clean energy comes from renewable projects based in the regions, like Murra Warra and Mt Gellibrand, people who live in these areas can’t tap into the electricity they’re hosting. 

The clean energy being built in regional Victoria mostly travels along high-voltage “superhighways” to Melbourne and Geelong.

The local power lines in regional areas like Western Victoria are too old and weak to handle the power coming off those energy superhighways.

These lines can't deliver the heavy-duty power modern farmers or businesses need for things like irrigation pumps or cold storage, so even with wind turbines spinning nearby delivering cheap, clean energy, communities are stuck paying premium prices for diesel to run their own equipment.

Money back in the community’s pocket

Beyond community benefit sharing grants programs, Murra Warra generates broader economic impacts. 

Landholders have new income streams from direct payments for hosting turbines, the local councils increase their revenue via the payments from windfarms in lieu of rates, and there can be significant local employment during the construction phase.  

“The Murra Warra Wind Farm is the largest ratepayer of Yarriambiack Shire Council, so there has to be a benefit for the community that exists within that council,” Findlay-Tickner said.

What are the most common concerns when a new project is proposed?

In a bushfire-prone region, people want to know that windfarms won’t get in the way of firefighting efforts. On this issue, locals saw that when a fire hit Murra Warra, CFA and aerial bombers were able to put it out quickly, with turbines shut down so planes could safely pass. 

Another concern that crops up is whether windfarms are contributing to a rise in insurance premiums in the area, but Findlay-Tickner said that premiums are going up everywhere across the industry.

People also ask about who pays for the decommissioning costs when the turbines are at the end of their life. Findlay-Tickner said decommissioning costs are built into planning approvals, but she said she would rather there be a bond to guarantee funds for the future.

Adequate local consultation

The grain farmer believed genuine community engagement is the most powerful tool in winning community support.

“In our community, there are a lot of wind projects specifically that are in the pipeline, waiting for transmission to come through, and one of the things that developers have done is employ local people to work on that community engagement,” she said.

“I think that’s just a no-brainer, really, because local people understand what their communities want, and they’re there on the spot to address those concerns, and actually really alleviate anxiety around it.”