Renewable Energy

This bill updates Queensland's gas laws to regulate hydrogen and other renewable gases alongside traditional natural gas. It creates a 'covered gas' category that includes hydrogen, biomethane, synthetic methane and gas blends, and establishes a clear licensing pathway for hydrogen pipelines. The changes support Queensland's renewable hydrogen industry, which could be worth over $33 billion by 2040.

This bill implements several 2025-26 State Budget measures and makes other amendments across seven Acts. It extends the doubled First Home Owner Grant and the apprentice payroll tax rebate, introduces contingency windfall taxes to protect foreign surcharge revenue, reforms how Budget Estimates hearings are chaired, and clarifies SPER registration fee rules.

This bill creates the legal framework for Queensland's shift from coal-fired to renewable electricity generation. It sets legislated renewable energy targets (50% by 2030, 70% by 2032, 80% by 2035), establishes new infrastructure frameworks to build transmission lines and Renewable Energy Zones, commits to public ownership of energy assets, and creates a $150 million fund to support coal-fired power station workers through the transition.

This bill enables a $2 billion wind farm of up to 226 turbines in three State forests near Gympie, creating special tenure arrangements that override the Forestry Act. It also separately fixes planning administration problems in the Springfield development area in Ipswich.

This bill overhauls Queensland's framework for managing the coexistence of resources, renewable energy and agricultural industries. It creates a new system for assessing and compensating CSG-induced subsidence damage to farmland, broadens Queensland's coexistence institutions to cover renewable energy, modernises the Financial Provisioning Scheme for mine rehabilitation, and streamlines regulatory processes across more than a dozen resources-related Acts.

This bill reshapes Queensland's energy legislation by repealing renewable energy targets, renaming the Act to the Energy (Infrastructure Facilitation) Act 2024, and shifting planning towards a market-driven approach focused on affordable, reliable and sustainable energy. It creates a new legislative framework for the CopperString transmission project to connect North and North West Queensland to the national electricity grid, and strengthens public ownership provisions for existing government-owned power assets.

This bill creates Queensland's first mandatory biofuels targets, requiring larger fuel retailers to ensure 2 per cent of their regular petrol sales are ethanol or other biobased petrol, and fuel wholesalers to ensure 0.5 per cent of diesel sales are biodiesel or other renewable diesel. The mandate is designed to grow Queensland's biofuels industry, create regional jobs, and cut transport emissions while protecting consumer choice by excluding premium unleaded petrol from the target.

This bill would have tightened the rules for Queensland's Solar Bonus Scheme, which pays a premium 44c/kWh feed-in tariff to over 280,000 homes and small businesses with eligible solar panels. It spelled out when adding a battery or extra solar would cause a customer to lose that tariff, and it also opened up retail electricity competition for customers in embedded networks like apartment buildings. The bill lapsed when Parliament was dissolved and did not become law.

This bill sets clear rules for Queensland's 240,000 Solar Bonus Scheme customers on how they can install batteries and extra solar panels without losing their 44c/kWh feed-in tariff. It also opens up retail competition for customers in embedded electricity networks and lets regional Queensland households and small businesses switch back to Ergon Retail.

This bill puts Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets into law — 30% reduction by 2030, 75% by 2035, and net zero by 2050. It creates a framework for planning how different sectors of the economy will reduce emissions, sets up an expert advisory panel, and requires the government to report progress to Parliament every year.

This bill introduces a community benefit system requiring developers of large-scale projects (primarily renewable energy) to assess social impacts and negotiate community benefit agreements with local governments before seeking planning approval. It also overhauls governance and planning approvals for Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues and infrastructure, and makes administrative changes to Economic Development Queensland.