Community mistrust puts renewable energy rollout at risk

Australia’s clean energy rollout is accelerating; however, delays persist across rural and regional Australia.

Community engagement consultancy Capire, an RSK Group company, said the biggest bottleneck isn’t funding or technology — it’s community trust.

Despite the $12.7 billion invested in renewables in 2024 and a further $8 billion announced in the 2025–26 federal Budget, many projects find it difficult to earn social licence, leading to delays.

While there is overall public support for renewable energy, Capire said there is strong resistance at the local level when projects become a reality. The consultancy has delivered community and stakeholder engagement programs for renewable energy projects such as Darlington Wind Farm and Meering West Wind Farm in Victoria, and the Yanco Delta Wind Farm in NSW.

“We see fear drive much of the opposition. Concerns within communities about land rights, safety and visual or other negative impacts are often stronger than the perceived community benefit,” said Capire spokesperson Matthew Gordon. “If developers engage only with landholders who will benefit financially, issue non-disclosure agreements, reveal decisions late in the process and aren’t transparent with the wider community, it creates mistrust and deepens division between neighbours.”

Gordon said developers are missing clear opportunities around engagement. “Some regional and rural communities have historically felt unheard and ‘overridden’, because too often, developers still treat engagement as something you do after decisions are made or to justify decisions already taken,” he said.

“Over the past two decades, communities have felt far more empowered, where advocating for themselves has often succeeded. Locals talk and can find out early on if a developer hasn’t been transparent. They use social media and community chat groups to build resistance. They see themselves as deserving a seat at the table when decisions affect their land and their communities.

He said some developers aren’t adapting fast enough, and poor engagement can create community outrage that makes projects harder to deliver.

“You might still get approval, but you won’t get social licence, and that backlash follows the next project, and the one after that,” Gordon said.

Research has shown that projects with early, transparent and ongoing community engagement face fewer delays, stronger political support and far greater long-term success.

“A developer will never achieve true social licence where the whole community embraces the project; but with the right engagement they will get less pushback,” Gordon said.

Gordon explained that the most important community engagement actions are also the least comfortable and ones developers avoid the most. Capire recommends three foundational principles before developers embark on a formal engagement process.

Capire’s community engagement principles:

1. Start engagement early and understand it is a long game.  Early, casual conversations with community members where the developer can listen to concerns, demonstrate their good track record and build trust can be more effective than town halls that are often designed to deliver information.
2. Create space for communities to talk among themselves. Opposing voices to a project can be a significant minority in a community — and that’s because a safe space for grassroots conversations hasn’t been created. Capire has seen communities proactively create their own space for discussion. “One community recruited a representative sample to get a balanced view of the area’s sentiment about offshore renewables,” Gordon said.
3. Be honest about the community’s influence, and project limits. Communities must know as early as possible what they can influence, what they can’t and why. This includes transparency about future project stages and potential project expansions. Gordon said, “A recent example is a regional solar farm project gaining approval but now a community member found out a battery energy storage system is planned. It’s getting strong local pushback and the developer has lost the community’s trust.”

Capire said that community relationships are essential and starting on the wrong foot can risk the millions invested in a project.

The consultancy discusses these challenges in its ‘Just Transition’ webinar series which runs until 19 February and focuses on community engagement around renewable energy development.

Image credit: iStock.com/Liudmila Chernetska