Australian Wind Alliance re-launches as RE-Alliance

The Australian Wind Alliance is re-launching as RE-Alliance, a trusted, independent organisation that sits at the intersection of regional Australian communities and the broader renewable energy industry.

After seven years building social licence for wind energy in regional Australia, RE-Alliance’s mission is to take the successful ideas they have built working with the wind industry and take it to new sectors, like solar, storage and transmission.

RE-Alliance focuses on connecting people and power, with a vision for the renewable energy transformation in Australia to deliver sustainable, long-term community benefits to regional communities.

The organisation will focus on supporting community engagement in new renewable energy zones, where all renewable energy companies must gain local acceptance and support for their projects to be successful.

Andrew Bray, National Director of RE-Alliance, said, “Social licence will be a critical consideration for all projects in renewable energy zones and we’re keen to play our role in making sure this is achieved.

“We see real opportunities for projects to coordinate to deliver the best outcomes for the local communities. In fact, not to do so risks a haphazard approach that could threaten acceptance.

“We’re here to make sure that when you live in a renewable energy area, you will see tangible community benefits – like high quality jobs and apprenticeships for local people, industry contribution to community initiatives and opportunities for community-ownership of renewables.”

RE-Alliance has built expertise in best-practice benefit sharing and community engagement over many years and can act as a facilitator between industry and communities – organising community roundtables, developing citizen-led visions for vital community projects and then connecting industry to support these projects and build social license. In cases where harmful narratives or misinformation arise, RE-Alliance said it supports mythbusting, education and accurate information sharing.

“We will continue our focus on promoting wind energy, while also increasing our capacity to support all forms of renewable energy projects,” Mr Bray said.

“We intend to work closely with all renewable energy industries to deliver the kind of outcomes regional communities rightfully expect from large scale build outs of energy generation infrastructure in their regions.”