Renewable energy

The Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (the PSICBOLA Act) was passed by Parliament on 25 June 2025 and is awaiting assent. The community benefit system will commence by proclamation.

Introducing a community benefit system into Queensland’s planning framework

As part of the Queensland Government’s election commitment, the Queensland planning framework has been amended to ensure wind farms and large-scale solar farms are both impact assessable and subject to a community benefit system.

Both social impact assessment and entering into a community benefit agreement must be undertaken prior to lodging a development application.

This new approach makes sure that wind farms and large-scale solar farms contribute positively to communities and align with host community expectations as well as land-use planning objectives.

What’s changing?

To support the PSICBOLA Act, the following changes to the Queensland planning framework are occurring:

  • Amending the Planning Regulation 2017
  • Introducing a Social Impact Assessment Guideline
  • Amending the Development Assessment Rules
  • Introducing a solar farm code in State Development Assessment Provisions.

Key changes to the planning framework are described in the following sections.

  • Proponents of wind farms and large-scale solar farms will be required to undertake social impact assessment, evaluating how a project will affect the local community. This includes consideration of workforce management, housing and accommodation, local business and industry procurement, as well as health and community wellbeing and will involve community and stakeholder engagement requirements.

  • Proponents will be required to enter into an agreement with local government that contains measures and commitments to manage and counterbalance social impacts, as well as enhance community outcomes for a positive legacy.

  • All development applications for wind farms and large-scale solar farms in Queensland will be subject to impact assessment and assessed by the State Assessment and Referral Agency in Queensland Government. This will require public notification, giving local communities a chance to participate in the development assessment process.

  • Community members and stakeholders who make properly made submissions during the public notification process will have the right to appeal the final decision, ensuring greater transparency and accountability.

  • Amendments to the DA Rules propose new alternative public notice requirements for prescribed development requiring social impact assessment to ensure contemporary and practical ways to ensure community awareness, given the large scale of the development sites.

    Primarily the changes acknowledge that a public notification sign to be placed on the frontage of a site of a large wind or solar farm development over many hectares is not practical or helpful.

Consultation material

The following documents and information are provided below to provide context and information about how the proposed changes will be implemented and operationalised.

Fact sheets

The following fact sheets describe key changes to the Queensland planning framework:

Next steps

The Queensland Government has reviewed all community and stakeholder feedback received and is making any necessary adjustments to the Queensland planning framework based on this feedback.

Updates and next steps on the changes to support the PSICBOLA Act will be communicated via our website.

We encourage you to stay involved as we work towards a holistic approach to renewable energy development in Queensland.

More information

If you have any questions, you can contact the project team by email on renewablesplanning@dsdilgp.qld.gov.au.

Last updated: 27 Jun 2025