Earlier this month, two competing visions for the future of farming emerged on opposite sides of the country. At Gina Rinehart’s Bush Summit in Broome, renewables were cast as a threat to rural communities, while in Canberra, the inaugural Farming Forever Summit highlighted how clean energy is sustaining farm livelihoods.
Fourth-generation farmer Charlie Prell knows the difference firsthand. After years of drought and falling commodity prices pushed his Crookwell property to the edge, wind turbines helped secure his farm’s future and supported his retirement.
Charlie shares his story of resilience and why he sees renewables as part of farming’s survival, not its downfall. But he’s blunt about some of the renewable industry’s missteps and how rushed contracts and divisive tactics by some developers left scars that still fuel distrust and give ammunition to anti-renewables campaigns.
The challenge now is to rebuild trust, ensure farmers have genuine agency, and prove that clean energy can strengthen rural communities rather than undermine them.
The AEMC is about to require more of retailers, but one commissioner says if they'd…
Share of gas in global electricity mix has fallen for the fifth consecutive year, with…
Spanish energy outift commissions two solar plants in two separate states of Australia, both of…
The number of home batteries installed through the federal rebate has now passed 430,000, as…
Emissions of climate-warming pollutants are at an all-time high, mainly from the burning of fossil…
SMA boss Jürgen Reinert says decision to close down its Australian domestic business driven by…