Farmers are earning upwards of $100K a year in passive income with huge demand for land for renewable energy projects as companies strive to be net zero.
Rok Solid, a first of its kind renewable energy land acquisition agency, has so far secured 4 Gigawatts (GW) of storage projects, and 800 Megawatts (MW) of solar projects over 30 individual land deals brokered across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
“There’s a huge race for battery energy storage sites across the country at the moment to help states reduce demand on the grid and prevent blackouts,” said Rok Solid founder and Chief Executive Daniel Moroko.
“Many farmers have big parcels of land that can be used for these sites and make in the vicinity of a million dollars a year leasing out 800 to a 1,000 hectares, while others can lease a small portion of that, even just 20 hectares and still earn six figures,” said Mr Moroko.
“In the past few years we’ve secured land which will deliver more than 4000 megawatts (MW) of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) back into the grid. Including major BESS projects on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and South Australia’s Gould Creek, which are now DA approved and ready to build.
Rok Solid has also secured some 800MW of Solar farm projects, by amalgamating a number of landholders and introducing major companies like Atlas Renewables, Valent Energy, RWE and Ratch to bring these large scale projects to fruition.
“There’s huge demand for land for these projects with Australia aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.”
Federal energy minister Chris Bowen has warned Australia will need to build 40 wind turbines alone a month, until 2030 to meet the government’s ambitious renewable energy target.
“There’s a whole-of-government approach with every state and territory having their own target timeline, even setting up renewable energy zones, but the problem is the time it’s taking to get Development Applications approved.”
“We facilitate the first steps, negotiating and helping to structure land purchases and making sure landholders are rightly compensated. We are about bringing opportunities to farmers and major landholders on their terms,” Mr Moroko said.
Latest data from the Clean Energy Council shows there are currently 81 wind, solar, hydro and bioenergy projects under construction or due to begin around Australia, including 21 projects in NSW, 20 in Victoria and 16 in Queensland.
“A lot of farmers are skeptical and feel unsure about the process of selling or leasing part of the land to a company for a renewable project, but once they get a chance to see the various projects and have their questions answered, they actually realise this opens them up to a whole new income stream,” Mr Moroko said.
“The flatter the land the better it is, but you can’t just build these renewable projects in the desert, because you need the supporting infrastructure, so that’s why closer to the coast is better than the middle of the country,” Mr Moroko said.
“Queensland is good because you traditionally have those bigger farms but as you hit the coast you have the bigger population, whereas in NSW and Victoria we are seeing a lot of these smaller scale farms,” he said.
About Rok Solid
Rok Solid, a first of its kind renewable energy land acquisition agency connecting landholders with the companies wanting to lease or buy land for major projects.
Rok Solid has so far secured $61M worth of land for more than 30 renewable projects brokered across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
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