Partnering with the community

We are committed to supporting local communities and safeguarding the environment. Private Energy Partners proposes to develop the Northern Quartz Campus in a way that delivers meaningful benefits to the local area, while minimising impacts.

Our focus includes creating jobs and business opportunities for locals, protecting wildlife and native vegetation, addressing fire hazards, weeds and pests, reducing noise and visual disturbance, and minimising the impact of construction traffic on local roads.

We will engage with the local community during the development of the Northern Quartz Campus projects. This will include providing regular project updates and working with the community to develop a Community Partnership Program so project benefits are targeted at local needs.

Social Impact Assessment

Solquartz and Private Energy Partners have commissioned Social Impact Assessments (SIAs) for our proposed Townsville region projects. These include:

• Supernode North Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and a metallurgical silicon production facility in our Northern Quartz Campus, within the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct
• two proposed solar farms in the Woodstock area, including two sites along Rowe Road (adjacent to existing transmission lines).

The SIAs, which include a voluntary regional SIA and project-specific SIAs, will be undertaken by independent consultants to evaluate how these projects may affect nearby communities.

Regional SIA

The Regional SIA assesses the potential impacts and benefits of our projects to nearby communities including changes to amenity, local values, employment, housing, wellbeing, and business opportunities. The SIA incorporates feedback from 30 Woodstock residents as well as Traditional Owners, community organisations, TCC, and government agencies. Key themes from consultation with Woodstock community members included:

• The importance of privacy, self-reliance, rural lifestyle, and access to open space and natural environments.
• Concerns about project related noise, impacts on local character, population influx, community safety, traffic, flooding, emissions and changes to environmental qualities.
• A desire to maintain rural lifestyle, beautify the area, develop a village 'heart' in Woodstock, increase local employment and business opportunities, and protect the Ross River catchment.
• Concerns about project related noise, impacts on local character, population influx, community safety, traffic, flooding, emissions and changes to environmental qualities.
• A desire to maintain rural lifestyle, beautify the area, develop a village 'heart' in Woodstock, increase local employment and business opportunities, and protect the Ross River catchment.

Further Regional SIA findings will be shared with the community once the report is finalised.

Individual project SIAs

Work has started on individual SIAs for the above projects. Community feedback provided during Regional SIA consultation will be incorporated into these assessments. As limited information about the solar farms was available at this time, separate SIA workshops for these projects will be held in the coming months. We’ll continue to share updates about the solar farms as project planning progresses, and let the community know about workshop details as soon as they’re available.

In the meantime, if you would like to attend one of the solar farm SIA workshops, please contact Roundtable at community@roundtablecomms.com.au or on 0475 065 105 to register your interest.

Read the SIA fact sheet to find out more.

Community Partnership Program

We are developing a Community Partnership Program to share the benefits of our Northern Quartz Campus projects with the Woodstock community and Townsville region.

Locals know their community better than anyone, so we are seeking your ideas and feedback. Help us create a program with long-lasting benefits to meet the needs of your community – today and into the future.

Find out more by reading the Community Partnership Program overview.