Ag Energy Taskforce
Genuine ag focused collaboration is essential to achieving better outcomes for landholders and regional communities through the energy transition.
Why this matters
The Ag Energy Taskforce is a collaboration platform bridging the cultural divide and building trusted relationships between the ag and energy sectors for better outcomes.
Established in 2014, the Ag Energy Taskforce brings together representatives of peak Australian agriculture bodies to collaborate, build capacity and provide advocacy regarding energy costs and infrastructure impacting agricultural industries. The Taskforce has a strong focus on land use and relationships with farmers and rural communities, as the renewable transition in rolled-out.
Energy sector representatives collaborated with the Ag Energy Taskforce through the Ag + Energy Roundtable in 2023-2024 to identify strategic social licence issues at the nexus of energy and agriculture. Together we identify what’s working, areas for continuous improvement, encourage collaboration and track action through our energy and agriculture network.
In 2025, this collaborative work has now been rolled into the Ag Energy Taskforce.
Impact
As Australia moves towards a renewable energy future, a growing number of agricultural landholders are being approached to host energy infrastructure including solar, wind and transmission on their land. Simultaneously, many regional communities and landholders are concerned about energy costs and looking for opportunities to innovate, including by hosting renewable energy infrastructure.
The Taskforce:
- Drives better landholder and community social licence outcomes through the energy transition
- Elevates discussions from the Ag Energy Taskforce and other relevant forums to a strategic level
- Feeds into to relevant processes run through AEMO and other relevant government and market bodies
- Operates as a clearing house of strategic issues rather than seeking to resolve all issues within the Roundtable or Taskforce.
The Ag + Energy Social Licence Roundtable met on 10 October 2024, for representatives from the ag sector and our Energy Charter Signatories to come together to share, listen and raise better practice opportunities, in the spirit of building awareness, understanding and trust.
In addition, at this Roundtable session we learned about the Community and Employment Benefits Program being delivered for the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, NSW.
The Ag + Energy Social Licence Roundtable met on 27 March 2024. This Roundtable showcased a new partnership between Queensland Farmers’ Federation and Powerlink Queensland, opportunities for shared value as AGIG continues innovate around bio-fuels and an update from the Ag Energy Taskforce.
Building on the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commission Community Engagement Review, the Roundtable also considered options to respond. Warwick Squire, CEO Gas Fields Commission shared lessons learnt from Coal Seam Gas in Queensland and Katie-Anne Mulder, CEO Queensland Renewable Energy Council shared ideas on how the Energy Charter’s unique architecture could be leveraged by the renewables sector to improve engagement outcomes for Queenslanders.
Resources:
- Ag Energy Social Licence Roundtable presentation
- AGIG and Helmont Energy: Wide Bay Bioenergy Hub presentation
- Partnership between QFF and Powerlink presentation
- GasFields Commission Queensland: Rating System, Experience of Working with a Rating System for Gas
- Shape Your Energy Future Program
- Chair: Opening statement Ag Energy Social Licence Roundtable
- TasFarmers Farm Access Code of Conduct
The Ag + Energy Social Licence Roundtable met on 20 September 2023.
Ahead of the meeting the Ag Energy Taskforce have also provided a Communique on Strategic Issues for Action to guide discussion at the Roundtable.
Resources:
On 22 June 2023, the Energy Charter teamed up with the Ag Energy Taskforce and the 2023 National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo to host a special Ag + Energy Roundtable event.
The Roundtable event invited conference speakers and participants to reflect on the conference and ask the critical question; where to from here?
Together, we unpacked opportunities for farmers to play a greater role in decarbonising the grid and explored how key challenges could be addressed through collaboration between the ag and energy sectors.
Resources:
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The Roundtable is a groundbreaking initiative providing a forum for representatives from the energy and agriculture sectors to work together to build understanding, identify problems and collaborate to find solutions to the many issues at the centre of Australia’s energy transition. The Roundtable enables energy sector representatives to work directly with members of the Ag Energy Taskforce, often in place-based settings, to understand the social licence issues at the nexus of the energy and agriculture sectors and to close the cultural divide between the sectors.
Joy Thomas, Independent Chair, Ag Energy Roundtable and Taskforce
Collaborators
Meet the Independent Chair
Joy Thomas
The Ag Energy Taskforce is independently chaired by Joy Thomas, formerly National Irrigators Association.
Ag Sector Collaborators
Founding members include:
- Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner
- Central Irrigators Trust
- Cotton Australia
- Dairy Australia
- National Farmers’ Federation
- National Irrigators Council
- NSW Farmers
- Murrumbidgee Irrigation
- Pioneer Valley Water
- Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association
- Queensland Farmers’ Federation
- Victorian Farmers Federation.
Industry Collaborators
The Energy Charter Signatories:
- AusNet Services
- Endeavour Energy
- Essential Energy
- Marinus Link
- Powerlink Queensland
- SA Power Networks
- TasNetworks
- Transgrid.
Together with non-Signatories:
- AEMO
- Ausgrid.
A range of other energy businesses, energy sector industry bodies and government representatives also attend.
This #BetterTogether initiative aligns with:
Principle 3: We will provide energy safely, sustainably and reliably.
