RAPAD welcomes Texan delegation

The Remote Area Planning and Development (RAPAD) Board is hosting a delegation from the United States’ leading renewable energy State – Texas, this week ahead of an Energy and Economic Futures Forum in Barcaldine on Friday 27 September.

RAPAD Chair and Longreach Mayor, Tony Rayner said the delegation of landholders, policy and community representatives will meet with government and industry in Brisbane before visiting landholders in Blackall and Barcaldine and participating in the forum alongside local expertise and experience.

“RAPAD representatives had the opportunity to visit Texas in May as part of our strategy to diversify the Central West economy,” Mayor Rayner said. “It allowed us to see firsthand how a region similar to our own has maximised benefits from the expansion of clean energy and showed the reality of what our RAPAD Power Grid proposal can deliver for our region.”

“In Texas we saw and heard how this growth in renewable energy has not only provided more electricity and secured energy supplies, but it has impacted and benefited local communities.”

“Texas is well-known as an oil and natural gas producer, but what is not widely appreciated is its incredible growth in renewable energy – wind and solar,” he said.

“We were also interested to hear, that it was not necessarily a ‘green agenda’ driving this uptake, but real returns and economic gains for landholders, communities and local economies.”

“These are important lessons for our region. We want to use those lessons from Texas to progress our own plan for renewable energy, and how we can use it to strengthen the foundations of our economy, particularly through those tough seasons.”

“Our plan is how our communities participate in and benefit from the transition to clean energy. We don’t want projects imposed on us – we want our region to be in a position invite projects to our region to work with us.”

“Texas is the leading generator of renewable energy in the United States and we have a lot to learn from their experience – good and bad – and use that to develop how we progress plans for the RAPAD Power Grid.”

Texas generates more than 150,000 gigawatt (GW) hours of wind and solar energy combined. In 2022-23, Australia’s total renewable energy generation was 76,000 GWh.

“We look forward to connecting local landholders, business, First Nations and local councils with industry, agencies and our visitors from Texas at the forum on Friday – one of many opportunities to come,” Mayor Rayner said.