Solar, wind, battery and data centre projects excluded from strategic pathway 4 min read
The Queensland Parliament has passed the State Development and Public Works Organisation (Critical Minerals) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026, and in the process has excluded renewables and data centres from the State strategic projects regime.
Passed on 26 August 2026 with amendments, the Bill now prohibits certain solar, wind, battery storage and data centre developments from being declared State strategic projects. We examined the Bill as introduced in an Allens Insight earlier this month; this update covers the key changes when it passed.
Key takeaways
- A solar farm, wind farm or battery storage facility development cannot be declared a State strategic project.
- A data centre development for research and development or commercial purposes cannot be declared a State strategic project.
- A modification order cannot be made with respect to a regional interests development approval under the Regional Planning Interests Act 2014.
Renewable projects
The exclusion applies to development of a solar farm, wind farm or battery storage facility that requires a social impact assessment under the Planning Act 2016. This will preclude development for a material change of use for all wind farms, solar farms with a maximum instantaneous electricity output of 1MW or more, and battery storage facilities with a maximum instantaneous electricity output of 50MW or more from being declared a State strategic project.
The stated rationale is to preserve the integrity of the recently introduced community benefit regime in the Planning Act 2016, in particular, the need for these projects to undergo social impact assessment and follow the impact assessable development assessment process.
The Explanatory Notes acknowledge that some renewable projects will fall outside the scope of the exclusion. They reference a solar array generating electricity solely for on-site use, or an activity that is not assessable development. An example of the latter is a renewables development on a mining lease for the purpose of the mining activity.
Data Centres
Under the amendments, a data centre cannot be declared a State strategic project if operated for:
- research and development;
- a commercial purpose; or
- a purpose prescribed by regulation.
This last category leaves open the possibility of expanding the exclusion as data centre policy develops.
In the Second Reading Speech, the Deputy Premier, the Hon. Jarrod Bleijie, said, 'the amendment will prohibit declaration of data centres to be state strategic projects whilst the government develops the right settings for managing these projects under the Planning Act, like we did with other renewable energy projects'.
A data centre is defined as a building or other structure used wholly or mainly for providing compute resources, electronic data storage or computer networking services.
The Explanatory Notes state that the definition is about physical buildings and structures and not a virtual system. This is consistent with the focus being on the physical aspects of the development such as land use compatibility, power draw and water resource demand.
The use of the phrase 'wholly or mainly' in the definition is deliberate. According to the Explanatory Notes, these words are used to ensure that projects which may include elements of a data centre as an ancillary use are not excluded from being declared State strategic projects. The example provided in the Explanatory Notes is 'a new advanced manufacturing facility requiring on-site compute resources and data storage facilities within an assembly line complex associated with the high-technology manufacturing techniques'.
The types of services identified (compute resources, electronic data storage and computer networking services) are undefined and will therefore take on their ordinary meaning over time.
Regional Planning Interests Act 2014
The amendments add a regional interests development approval (RIDA) under the Regional Planning Interests Act 2014 (RPI Act) to the list of key authorisations.
The effect is that a modification order cannot override the requirement for a RIDA, or the requirement to comply with a RIDA, where a State strategic project is a resource activity or regulated activity under the RPI Act that will impact areas of regional interest.
The rationale for this amendment is to continue protecting prime agricultural land by requiring that a State strategic project comply with the RPI Act. The amendment also responds to numerous public submissions about this matter.
The Allens team is happy to discuss the changes that will be implemented through the Bill and how they may be best used to facilitate future projects.