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TL Tracey Lefroy On Agtech - So What?

“If your farming land changes, and some local governments are choosing this, your farming land may get rated differently if you are a host of renewable energy. It's really important that the landowner ensures that written into their contract is that if there is a change in land rates because of hosting this, that sits with the developer, not with the landowner. For some landowners, the renewable energy income can actually change the way their business is taxed.”

Agtech - So What? · Alternative Proteins · November 2026

“If your farming land changes, and some local governments are choosing this, your farming land may get rated differently if you are a host of renewable energy. It's really important that the landowner ensures that written into their contract is that if there is a change in land rates because of hosting this, that sits with the developer, not with the landowner. For some landowners, the renewable energy income can actually change the way their business is taxed.” — Tracey Lefroy, Agtech - So What?

Context

Going through the commercial terms farmers should check before signing a renewables hosting deal, she flags land rating and tax treatment as costs that are easy to miss.

Transcript

Agtech - So What? Around 26:25 into the episode
Tracey Lefroy

…this turbine, for example, can generate seven megawatts of power. However, sometimes it may even be turned off such that it's only generating two megawatts of power. That's irrelevant to the landowner. Land only gets paid on what its potential. Interesting. You know, nameplate capacity is.

Sarah Nolet

Presumably because the landowner isn't making that decision to turn it on or off, it's the company and you've still incurred the cost of having the project there.

Tracey Lefroy

Other things that get written into your contract, which are super important, are things like rate differentials. So if your farming land changes, and some local governments are choosing this, your farming land may get rated differently if you are a host of renewable energy. And it's really important that the landowner ensures that written into their contracts is the fact that if there is a change in land rates because of hosting this, that that actually sits with the developer or the proponent, not with the landowner. Something for growers or landowners to be really aware of is that for some landowners, the renewable energy income can actually change the way that their business is taxed. So you've obviously got your primary production concessions for tax ratings. And depending on how you structure your business, that can be changed when you've got this income coming through. And that's something that we speak to the landowners about really extensively at the start is before you've signed anything, have a really good think about how you need to structure your business to accept this income in a way that minimizes its impact on your primary production. I do know that National Farmers Federation are doing some work on this. It's certainly…

Sarah Nolet

Yeah, it makes sense. That kind of community impact is one that I'm really interested in as well. That there's, you know, I've heard things like a big challenge has been when projects are going up in regional areas that the labor force actually do the installation. Like, is that taking away from…

Tracey Lefroy

Oh, I could go on about this for hours. So it's really complex. So obviously during the construction phase, there are a lot more staff or workers needed than during the operational phase. So it's kind of this get in your community for a couple of years and then a release. And it's about making sure…

Sarah Nolet

Those are really tangible examples, like the aged care facility and the upskilling. And I like that it's both, there's some quantitative stuff there, like the income increases, but there's some qualitative stuff there too, like the training and that kind of piece. It seems like we've been through…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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