15 December 2025
4 min read
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Queensland has taken the next step in its planning reforms, bringing large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the State’s Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) framework that commenced for solar and wind farms back in July 2025.
The Planning (Battery Storage Facilities) and Other Legislation Amendment Regulation 2025 ((Regulations) commenced on 12 December 2025 along with a new State code providing the assessment benchmarks to have certain BESS projects to be assessed by the State.
We have already considered the SIA and CBA framework in detail upon its commencement in July in our article New social impact and community benefit requirements begin for large-scale wind and solar development. The focus of this article is how this framework will apply to BESS projects and what developers and local governments need to be aware in terms of assessment of new and pre-existing applications for large scale BESS projects.
Development which is a material change of use of premises for a battery storage facility that has a maximum instantaneous electricity output of 50MW or more will:
The assessment manager will be the Chief Executive with the assessment being managed by the State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) and the assessment benchmarks will be those set out in the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP). Where the development is in a priority development area, the relevant development instrument under the Economic Development Act 2012 for the priority development area will apply in addition to the SDAP.
BESS projects which are less than 50MW will continue to be assessed by local governments as they are not caught by the framework and will be subject to the category of assessment and assessment benchmarks identified in local government planning schemes.
The following small scale BESS development is accepted development consistent with the existing criteria in Schedule 6 identifying development a local categorising instrument is prohibited from stating is assessable development:
As part of the reforms, the SDAP have been updated with a new State code 27: Battery storage facility development which sets out the technical assessment benchmarks SARA will apply, including:
Similar to the solar and wind farm arrangements, the following pre-existing applications will be taken to be not properly made and not to have been accepted on 12 December 2025 and will need to be remade to SARA once the SIA and CBA requirements have been complied with:
Local governments and renewable energy developers should familiarise themselves with the reforms that will now apply to new or pre-existing development applications or change applications made but not decided before 12 December 2025, for large-scale BESS developments. Renewable energy developers should also familiarise themselves with the new State Code 27 to understand the assessment benchmarks for BESS projects caught by these reforms.
If you have questions about how these amendments may apply to you or your renewable energy projects, please contact a member of our team below.
Disclaimer
The information in this article is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavour to provide accurate and timely information, we do not guarantee that the information in this article is accurate at the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future.
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