When Alison McLean first heard about the renewable energy projects rumoured to be coming to Hay, a farming town in the western Riverina region of New South Wales, she was concerned. It was 2022, a new transmission line project was advanced in its planning, and developers were starting to arrive with bold plans for wind and solar farms. It all had something to do with Hay’s designation as a Renewable Energy Zone, or REZ – though those words meant little to Alison at the time.

As Hay Shire Council’s economic development manager, Alison was primed to welcome any opportunity that could bring investment and job creation to the town. Yet she wasn’t sure what to make of all this REZ business. “I thought, this feels like it could be a gold rush,” she remembers, “and these guys could be absolute cowboys.”

There was another issue percolating in the back of her mind, too. Over the years, Alison had heard stories from other towns about renewables driving conflict between neighbours – once-friendly relationships breaking down over politics and the unequal distribution of money.

I didn’t want to see renewables driving conflict in Hay. We’re such a small community. We can’t afford to get to a place where people aren’t talking to each other.

While the risks of welcoming big renewable projects into a tight-knit farming community were real, Alison couldn’t shake the feeling that the opportunities were just as significant. She also knew there were real dangers in doing nothing – remaining reliant on a single, vulnerable industry. With Hay so heavily dependent on agriculture – prone to the swings of drought and market instability – she began to see renewable energy as a potential path to long-term stability and economic growth.

For Hay to seize this opportunity, though, it needed to happen with the community fully engaged. Alison understood this would require more than ambition; it would take careful guidance to navigate the complexities and avoid the mistakes other towns had made. Now, the challenge was finding the right support.

And then fate intervened.

One afternoon, not long after these thoughts began, Alison found herself in an unlikely conversation at the Hay visitor centre with a woman named Kate Hook. Kate had been stranded in town after getting a flat tyre, and she visited the centre every day while the garage sourced a replacement. Over those visits, the two began chatting. “Eventually, Alison asked me what I did for work,” Kate recalls. “And I told her I worked at RE-Alliance, and my job was to make sure regional communities had the support they needed to benefit from big renewable energy projects.”

Alison’s response was immediate: “Oh my god – you’re the people I’ve been looking for.”

The feeling, it turns out, was mutual. Kate had been looking for regional towns that wanted support navigating large-scale renewable energy projects. In Hay, she saw the perfect chance to help a community harness the benefits of renewables while sidestepping the pitfalls that had troubled others.

This kind of engagement is crucial for governments, too. Without local communities on board, major infrastructure projects like REZs face delays, resistance, and even failure. Ensuring local voices are heard and the benefits are clear makes it easier for governments to meet their renewable energy targets.

To get that buy-in in Hay, RE-Alliance started with education. Working with Alison, they set up a ‘Renewable Energy 101’ workshop for the council, breaking down why the energy shift was happening, why it was happening in Hay, and what Hay could gain from these projects. “I remember looking around and seeing a lot of folded arms across chests,” Kate recalls of the workshops. “But by the end, people were saying, ‘Let’s find out what the community thinks, and what the developers are offering.’”

The next step was to bring 12 influential community members – many of them sceptical of renewables – into the conversation with another workshop. The goal here was less about persuading and more about having an open discussion on the facts. “We started by acknowledging the potential impacts [of the REZ],” Kate says. “Because it’s going to have an impact. The key is talking about how we can manage it together.”

Among those who attended the meeting was Phil Wilson, a 50-year-old mechanic and business owner who knows the town like the back of his hand. Sceptical of renewables and dismissive of climate change, he was vocal about his concerns. Wind farms, he told a Good Weekend writer reporting on the renewable energy shift, were “a scourge on the landscape,” while plans to convert animal waste into energy were simply “a joke”.

RE-Alliance listened to Phil's concerns and those of other attendees and answered their questions. Crucially, they also took the time to talk about life in Hay as it stood now – the challenges the community was facing in their daily lives.

The workshop unearthed critical issues facing the town, including the lack of aged care services, the long drive to access essential medical care, and how the rising cost of electricity was hurting everyone’s pockets. It became a forum for candid discussions, with no topic off-limits. And then RE-Alliance posed a question: Could the REZ actually help solve these problems?

By pooling together demands and working as a united front, the group realised the REZ could be leveraged to not only attract investment but also negotiate for better infrastructure – like an aged care facility, improved medical transport, and more affordable energy. 

From there, Hay Shire Council organised a series of public meetings for the entire town. These gatherings followed the same approach as the earlier workshops – open forums where residents could ask questions, voice concerns, and get a clearer picture of how renewable energy projects might impact their community. The council also worked hard to ensure everyone clearly understood the lengthy process ahead and that any project would ultimately require approval from the NSW government before it could proceed.

Repeating this process with the broader public ensured that everyone had a chance to be heard and fully understand the potential impacts and benefits of the projects. Many still had their doubts about the science of climate change, but most ultimately supported any move that would bring jobs and investment to Hay. “The renewables transition is going to happen whether you’re for or against it,” Phil accepted. Better to make the most of it.

"The lesson learned, I think, is the power of community," said Kate.

Once Hay realised that Hay was crucial to the success of this whole project – that it was important to the developers that Hay was happy, and important to the government – they suddenly weren’t shy to ask for what they needed. And to ask from a position of strength.

Hay emerged from this process with a consolidated, coordinated set of principles – a document outlining the town’s expectations from any future renewable projects. It covered everything from essential infrastructure improvements, like assisted living facilities and better access to medical services, to long-term financial benefits the community could gain from these projects. Known simply as ‘The Principles’, it provided a clear, unified message to developers about what Hay needed and expected.

Kate and Alison knew the community was behind the document – it had brought the town together and clarified what the town truly needed. But they were surprised to find that the developers loved it too. “It made their lives so much easier,” Kate recalls, “because they had a clear direction of what the community wanted.” 

“The developers were like, ‘You guys have already done the work. You want this, this and this. Sure.’”

The results for Hay were game-changing: developers came to the table, agreeing to provide cheaper electricity for the entire town if their projects move forward – an outcome that resonated with the community’s desire to feel the direct benefits of renewable energy.

Hay also secured commitments for other long-term initiatives should the projects go ahead, including plans for education, housing, and an assisted living facility for the town’s aging population. There was also an agreement to establish an electric bus service to Griffith, making it easier for residents to access essential medical services. On top of that, one of the largest proposed projects promised to inject $30 million into a community benefit fund over 30 years – a fund that would help sustain the region for generations to come.

For developers, the process has been just as positive. Normally, renewable energy projects face significant opposition in rural areas, with as much as 90% of submissions typically being objections. But in Hay, that ratio has flipped – a situation Hay attributes to community and council engagement.

For now, Alison and Hay are playing the waiting game. The council is continuing to work on broader economic issues related to the energy shift with The Next Economy – but the NSW government and the Australian Energy Market Operator will ultimately decide which projects proceed in which towns. Hay is just one of many contenders in the Renewable Energy Zone rollout, and it remains unclear whether the town’s proposed developments – and the commitments they secured – will come to fruition. But if they do, it will happen on Hay’s terms.

We’ve got this massive opportunity now. And that’s what the conversation is actually about. Do you believe your community deserves the opportunity?

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