Abstract
This study aims to examine the critical socio-legal interaction between agriculture and onshore wind by offering a novel Agri Energy Justice (AEJ) framework. The AEJ Framework builds on existing energy justice conceptualisations and emphasises the significance of addressing agricultural interests and risks as a foundational step for onshore wind development through the unique pillar of ‘nexus justice’. The Australian state of Victoria is undertaking a significant socio-technical energy transition in response to net-zero policies and increasing climate change risks. While immense renewable energy potential exists in Victoria, including onshore wind energy, successful development requires a reoriented strategic approach to co-locate with agriculture and provide a potential blueprint for regions hosting wind development. In examining legal gaps and stakeholder perspectives in the Wimmera Southern Mallee (WSM) region of Victoria, Australia, this study highlights the often-perceived conflicting policy objectives of concurrently achieving energy decarbonisation and agricultural land preservation. We adopt a mixed-methods socio-legal and qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews with experts from the agricultural and energy sectors in the WSM, to capture critical stakeholder perspectives. Building on existing energy transition literature, we identify several factors and regulatory principles to enable or potentially limit agricultural activity coexistence with onshore wind and identify key themes from semi-structured interviews categorised in the four principles of the AEJ framework. Our proposed AEJ framework introduces a new paradigm recognising agricultural landholders and activities as an essential sociotechnical and legal process relevant to countries aiming to align onshore wind development with agricultural land uses. AEJ can clarify the values embedded in agricultural sectors, reduce social conflicts, enhance economic benefits, and ultimately, lower socio-technical risks associated with onshore wind development. The resulting study provides insights into the need for proactive legal reform to ensure countries prioritising agricultural land uses can simultaneously achieve justice, decarbonisation, and sustained agricultural output enshrined in AEJ principles.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to participants' privacy and confidentiality requirements, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the generosity and willingness of the stakeholder interviewee participants and the feedback of the Wimmera Mallee Community at the Energy and Agriculture Information Day on 10th September 2024. This study is limited to an examination of Victorian laws up to and including April 2025. This study is based upon work funded and supported by Wimmera Mallee Development Corporation, Victoria, Australia under Award Number DE-EE0008990 and its resulting output, Taylor, M’ Justice-Driven Agriwind’ (2024) https://wsm.org.au/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/JusticeDrivenAgriWind_MT_FinalSubmission_9.9.24_Update.pdf.
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MT wrote the main manuscript text and CS prepared Table 2. All authors reviewed and provided feedback on the manuscript.
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Associate Professor Madeline Taylor holds interests as a Board Member of ReAlliance, Fellow of the Climate Council, and Australian Research Council Industry Fellow Partnerships with the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Spark Renewables. Associate Professor Madeline Taylor is a Guest Editor for the Special Issue this manuscript is submitted to for consideration (SI: Climate action with justice: aligning climate and energy transition policies with energy equity). Chris Sounness serves as a Board Member of the Regional Leadership Collective and the Wimmera Southern Mallee Local Learning Network. He is also a member of the Soils Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Research and Development Committee and a State Government-appointed member of the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership. Additionally, Wimmera Southern Mallee Development (WSM Development) has a Memorandum of Understanding with The Energy Charter, through which both organizations collaborate to enhance regional outcomes.
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Ethics approval was obtained by the Macquarie University Research Ethics Subcommittee on 19/08/2024, Reference No: 520241807258842 and Project ID: 18072. All research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines/regulations applicable when human participants are involved pursuant to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2023. All participants consented to participate in the research study by undertaking interviews, and participants received basic project information about this research via the Human Research Ethics Application (HREA) Project Description form, and Participant Information and Consent Form (PCIFC) were reviewed and signed by all participants.
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Informed written consent to participate in interviews was obtained between 4/08/2024 and 29/08/2024 before the commencement of each interview pursuant to the Macquarie University Research Ethics Subcommittee requirements and the Participant Information and Consent Form (PCIF). All participants were made aware of the scope of the research project within both the Human Research Ethics Application (HREA) Project Description form and the Informed Participation and Consent Form. Participation was explicitly stated as being voluntary and provided the option for participants to withdraw at any time without giving a reason. All raw data is anonymised due to any sensitive economic or political opinions and will remain confidential.
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Taylor, M., Sounness, C. Enabling Agri Energy Justice: Incorporating agricultural and energy justice into utility-scale onshore wind development on agricultural land. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06522-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06522-7
