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Overview

Community Benefit Sharing has been an important focus of our consultation to date. We have sought feedback through Stakeholder Reference Groups (SRG) and industry. We also sought feedback on the proposed CBS process to develop a CBS framework for REZ.

Key points:

  • Your input will directly contribute to the co-design of a CBS framework that will outline how benefits from renewable energy generation are delivered within a REZ.
  • A coordinated regional approach (as proposed here) can make a greater impact on important regional issues and address key aspirations.

What is CBS?

CBS aims to integrate a renewables project into the local community by contributing to its future vitality and success.

CBS schemes have historically been largely implemented for renewable energy generation projects, but there is a growing expectation that transmission projects and battery/storage projects will also need their own CBS.

For example, this could look like

Why is it part of REZ?

We have heard that north west communities and councils are seeking coordinated CBS outcomes from hosting multiple renewable projects. We have also heard that communities are feeling engagement fatigue, as project-by-project engagement imposes heavy burdens on the same communities.

As we see more projects moving into the north west region, there is an opportunity to coordinate benefits from multiple individual developers to create a regional CBS scheme. This could:

What does it look like?

We don’t know yet. We have heard from our Stakeholder Reference Group that the framework should have the ability to coordinate all levels of benefit sharing (i.e. project and regional levels). In this framework, we are proposing that a large percentage of developer funds are pooled in a regional fund that is then administered to deliver broader community outcomes, with the developer left to deliver the remaining funds on a project level (i.e. to those directly impacted by a project).

Model describing the three layers of CBS- neighbourhood, close geographic communities, and the region

Community Advisory Board Expression of Interest

Alongside public input, the co-design of the regional CBS framework will be led by a newly established community advisory board in the north west.

The role of the group will be to:

  • Identify regional priorities;
  • Determine how the benefits should be delivered;
  • Determine the financial division of benefits across project level and regional CBS; and
  • Define the role of community in the implementation of a CBS program.

In recognition of the deep history and culture of this island, we acknowledge and pay our respects to all Tasmanian Aboriginal people; the past, and present custodians of the Land.