Niche welcomes Queensland Energy Roadmap
October 17, 2025
Media Centre
Niche, Australia’s largest privately-owned biodiversity and heritage consultancy, welcomes the release of the Queensland Government’s Energy Roadmap last week.
Chani Wheeler, Niche’s Ecology Technical and Commercial Lead, commented:
“This much-anticipated plan gives developers and investors a clearer view of priorities and opportunities in Queensland. We expect it will take time to build confidence and scale up activity given the market is influenced by many aspects of state and federal politics—for example, developers will be conscious of recent cancellation of renewable projects in Queensland and ongoing review of the EPBC Act,” said Ms Wheeler.
Ralf Regeer, Executive General Manager at Niche’s Queensland-based subsidiary Ausecology, commented:
“Queensland has an exciting opportunity to advance its energy sector while respecting the unique nature and communities we have in our State. We work with many energy clients who are already leading the way in this space and we look forward to seeing more projects get underway now the Energy Roadmap has been launched,” said Mr Regeer.
The new Energy Roadmap, announced by the Crisafulli Government last week, sets out a five-year plan for Queensland’s energy sector and aims to “deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for Queenslanders”.
Key pillars of the plan include:
- Driving private sector investment: $400 million Queensland Energy Investment Fund and Queensland Investment Corporation’s (QIC) new Investor Gateway encouraging collaboration between private sector and Government Owned Corporations (GOCs) to develop new energy generation and firming projects.
- Keeping state-owned coal assets operational longer: Reset of operating timeframes for state-owned coal assets at least to technical lives and decision framework for future review of extended operations, plus $1.6 billion Electricity Maintenance Guarantee to improve current energy assets.
- Continuing to invest in gas for reliability and firming: GOCs continuing to progress options for 700 MW of new gas-fired generation (including CS Energy’s Brigalow Gas Peaker, Stanwell’s Lockyer Energy Project and CleanCo’s investigation of a new open-cycle gas turbine at Swanbank) and a tender for 400MW of new gas-fired generation in Central Queensland.
- Investing in storage: Consolidated management of future pumped hydro proposals (including the Borumba, Mt Rawdon, Big T and Capricornia projects) by QIC to provide a consistent approach to assessment and investment, and a $10 million investment into community level batteries.
- Progressing critical transmission infrastructure: Construction of the Eastern Link of the CopperString transmission line in North Queensland and beginning of work on the Western Link, the $200 million North West Energy Fund to support generation and storage solutions in partnership with private sector, and advancing the Gladstone Project to maintain system security and reliability in Central Queensland.
- Supporting balanced roll-out of renewables: Establishment of Regional Energy Hubs to put downward pressure on development costs, and development of a new code of conduct for renewable energy developers to guide responsible behaviour and set community expectations.
Niche and Ausecology work with project proponents in the mining, gas, renewables, utilities and infrastructure sectors in Queensland, providing environment and heritage services across pre-approval and post-approval project stages, including Ecology Consulting, Cultural Heritage Management, Biodiversity Offsets and Land Restoration.
Contact
Carly Youd
Head of Brand, Marketing and Communications
Niche Environment and Heritage
Phone: 0409 675 019
Email: cyoud@niche-eh.com
