Planning & Environment
The Approvals Process
Developing a renewable energy project is a process that can take many years to complete as the project developer undertakes detailed environmental, technical and social assessments to ensure that the project is not only economically viable, but also appropriately sited and designed.
The project will be assessed at Federal, State and Local levels to ensure that the project meets the relevant planning and environmental requirements prior to commencing construction and operation. There are a range of technical and environmental conditions that must be met for a project of this nature to proceed, further details can be found below
As part of the project’s commitment to community engagement, we are engaging with the community at an early stage of development to gather insights and opinions prior to designing the project and submitting relevant applications. Further details of our engagement activities can be found by visit the Community page.
For more information regarding the development process, please refer to the Project Timeline below.
Approvals
Federal
A referral under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is required to support the proposed development of the Project. The EPBC Act is administered by the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).
State
A development application for the Project is required under the Planning Act 2016 (Planning Act), will be lodged to the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning (DSDILGP), with the State Assessment Referral Agency (SARA) being the assessment manager. The application will be assessed against the State Development and Assessment Provisions (SDAP) State Code 23: Wind farm development and State Code 16: Native vegetation clearing.
The requirements of State Code 23 include demonstrating compliance, as a minimum. with the following potential issues:
Impacts on Fauna and Flora
Waterways, water quality and erosion
Bushfire risk, flooding risk and other extreme weather events
Acoustic/Noise amenity
Electromagnetic interference
Shadow flicker
Social impacts
Landscape and visual impacts
Transport and traffic impacts
Aviation safety
Workforce accommodation and local infrastructure
Community engagement
Impacts on high value agricultural land
Decommissioning
Local/Regional Council
In addition to being a key stakeholder and referral agency in relation to the State level approvals, the Western Downs Regional Council is the responsible authority for various approvals such as meteorological mast installation, local roads, operational works and secondary approvals.
Environmental Studies
Goombi Energy Holdings is committed to developing renewable energy projects that are environmentally responsible and avoid or minimise impacts on protected species of flora and fauna. To ensure that the Project is developed responsibly, extensive environmental surveys are being conducted to understand the nature of project site and to effectively design the project to avoid or minimise impacts to flora and fauna.
We have engaged the environmental consultancy Umwelt to independently undertake many of these surveys, utilising their specialist ecologists and subject matter experts. Umwelt have over 30 years’ worth of experience in undertaking specialised environmental surveys and have worked on many renewable energy projects, including in Queensland.
The Project site is predominantly cleared and has been utilised over an extended period for grazing, cropping, and more recently, coal seam gas development. As such, the project site is highly disturbed. Notwithstanding the disturbed nature of the Project site, we remain committed to respecting the environmental values identified within the region and to design a project that complements that existing land uses.
The results of the environmental surveys undertaken will ultimately inform the project design and be used in support of the Project’s applications to the relevant authorities.
