Turn a project's MW or MWh into an evidence-based Community Benefit Agreement value range — checked against Queensland's community benefit rates and real settled agreements. Feed it from your Project & Impact Map, or enter figures directly.
PSICBOLA Act — commenced 18 Jul 2025Wind, Solar ≥1MW, BESS ≥50MW in scopeLast data check: 27 Jul 2026
1
Project Inputs
Pull these from a saved Project & Impact Map, or paste the map text below to auto-fill.
Maximum instantaneous electricity output.
Energy storage capacity, not power (MW) rating.
The BESS component always uses the standalone battery storage rate below, regardless of this choice.
Default 25 years — align to the project's operating life or the term under negotiation.
2
Reference Benchmark
Calculated instantly from the published rates below — no AI tool required for this step.
Technology
Reference rate
Basis
Solar farm
$850 / MW / year
Capacity-based minimum
Wind farm
$1,050 / MW / year
Capacity-based minimum
Standalone battery storage
$150 / MWh / year
Energy storage-based minimum
Other storage (e.g. hydro)
$850 / MWh / year
Energy storage-based minimum
Sourced from two confirmed, matching Queensland council policies — Isaac Regional Council (Renewable Energy Community Benefit Agreement Policy, CORP-POL-149) and Gladstone Regional Council (Renewable Energy Community Benefits Sharing Policy) — which mirror the NSW Department of Planning's Benefit-Sharing Guideline. The Goombi Renewable Energy Hub CBA (negotiated, not policy-mandated, Western Downs Regional Council) independently landed on the exact same $1,050/MW/yr wind rate, suggesting an emerging state-wide reference point. Treat this as the rate to anchor negotiations at — a ceiling to open from, not a floor to open below — and confirm the specific council's adopted position in Step 3.
KNOWN OPEN QUESTION — this figure stacks the primary generation rate and the BESS rate additively. Isaac Regional Council's own policy (CORP-POL-149 §1.1.2) states storage co-located with a primary solar or wind project does NOT trigger a separate mixed-generation fee — only the primary generation rate applies. The one real executed hybrid comparable on file, Wooderson Solar Farm (450MW solar + 3,600MWh BESS), was charged only its solar rate, with no separate BESS fee. Confirm which treatment applies before quoting the stacked figure below as settled — Step 3's verify prompt now asks this directly for hybrid projects.
Sector Reference Value
$0 / year
$0 total over 0 years
SECTOR REFERENCE — UNVERIFIED FOR THIS COUNCIL
How this compares to real settled agreements
Case
Project
Regime
Settled value
Scaled to your capacity
Comparators below are filtered to match your selected technology. “PSICBOLA 2025 mandated” comparators sit under the same statutory regime a project negotiating today would face — the stronger anchor. “Pre-2025 voluntary legacy” comparators predate the Act and understate what a mandated-regime negotiation should yield — cite them only to show the trajectory of rates, not as a rate benchmark. Note: a widely-cited $75,000/yr figure is sometimes wrongly attributed to Western Downs Green Power Hub — that figure actually belongs to a different, unrelated project (Goorambat East Solar Farm, Benalla VIC) and should not be used for this project.
3
Verify This Council's Adopted Rate
Needs live web research — ChatGPT Pro / Gemini Pro Deep Research mode, or Claude with web search enabled.
Some councils have published their own Renewable Energy Community Benefit policy with a rate that differs from the sector reference above. This step checks for that before you rely on the default.
Copied
A council adopting a policy is not the same as a council having set a rate — this gates what the override below can do (e.g. Flinders Shire has an adopted policy but its commissioning rate is officially "to be negotiated").
Only usable when the status above is "Fixed rate confirmed."
Flinders' $250,000/yr construction levy is a flat amount, not a rate — selecting the wrong kind here would silently multiply it by MW.
4
Your Benchmark Result
Save it, copy it, or hand it straight to the Negotiation Position Builder.
Not yet saved
This benchmark feeds directly into the Negotiation Position Builder — the ask, the comparables, and the costed local priority list all draw on the reference value and case studies calculated here.
Treat the figures on this page as a starting position, not a final number. Reference rates and case studies were current as of 27 July 2026 — confirm against the council's own published policy (Step 3) and current legal advice before using this in a live negotiation.