COMMENT
One hundred years from now, historians will look back at the world's transition to renewable energy and call it either "the great green transition" or the "great green catastrophe".
Never in human history has a program of mass transition - from fossil fuels to "renewable energy" - been attempted, let alone achieved, in such a short period of time.
The sheer scale of the investment required to completely overhaul our energy production and delivery systems is rarely given much thought.
Figures such as US$275 trillion by 2050 simply roll off the tongue.
This is just a number so large it is basically meaningless.
But to put it in some perspective - it would cost $1 trillion over the same period to completely end world hunger and poverty.
It's also easy for politicians to say "43 per cent emission reductions" and "80pc renewable electricity targets", but the hard part is paying for it, practically building the infrastructure and then making it work so the lights don't flicker and the air conditioners don't stop.
Just to get to the 80pc renewable energy target by 2030 will require 64 million solar panels, or roughly 162,000 hectares of land, 4000 wind turbines with another 405,000ha and 28,000 kilometers of new powerlines - with a further 202,300ha of easements.
Of course, it's unlikely the these "great new green shiny things" will be located in Ascot, Vaucluse, Toorak, Dalkeith or Glenelg.
They will go in the same place where the coal mines are, where our coal seam gas wells are, where we also grow the food that we all eat and where there aren't many votes to complain about it - in rural and regional Australia.
I've seen what coal mines and coal seam gas fields, along with their associated pipelines, can do to prime and productive agricultural land.
Now, the "great green transition" will need giant power lines connected to pump all that clean, green renewable energy into the cities.
Those power lines will be connected to massive solar farms and wind turbines made in China from Australian iron ore and coking coal.
In the past 12 months, there has been an explosion of activity in the solar, wind and hydrogen sector (excuse the pun) with projects popping up all over the place.
Landholders - who are finally getting to enjoy some green grass - are now faced with the prospect of having their farms littered with solar panels or rotating blades. How's the serenity?
Of course, with all of this massive investment there will be opportunity if these projects can be properly managed, and investment is focused on the local economies and communities and not simply siphoned back to the cities or overseas.
Landholders should also play the most important part in how these projects are developed, constructed and maintained - and not simply ridden over, like has happened previously with coal mines and coal seam gas developments.
But the question will ultimately be - does the bush get the crumbs again, or do we finally get a proper piece of the pie?
Ultimately, this will be up to us - to coordinate, communicate and to demand that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated again.
Renewable energy projects could create a bright future for rural and regional Australia, as long as they don't impede our ability to grow food and don't leave a mess that we will have to clean up.
