RELA has been recognised with the Clean Energy Council Collaboration Award, an award that speaks directly to the role we play in finding alignment between Landowners and Developers in Australia’s renewable energy transition.
For us, this is not simply recognition of a project, product or event. It is recognition of a way of working.
Renewable energy development depends on land. More specifically, it depends on agricultural land. That means the transition cannot be delivered through technical feasibility alone. It also depends on landowners, farming businesses, regional communities, developers, advisers, financiers and industry bodies finding a shared way forward.
That is easy to say. It is much harder to do.
Landowners and developers often come to the same project from very different starting points. Developers need investable projects, clear pathways to delivery, land access, social licence and long-term certainty. Landowners need information, confidence, fair commercial outcomes and a process that respects the land, the farming system and the family decisions sitting behind it.
RELA was created to help close that gap.
Collaboration starts with better information
The CEC Collaboration Award recognises the work behind RELA’s development of tools that help landowners and developers engage earlier, more openly and with better information. That matters because alignment rarely happens by accident.
Alignment occurs when landowners can explain the story of their land, not just respond to a line on a map. It happens when developers understand landowner objectives before they make an offer. It happens when price is treated as one important factor, but not the only factor. And it happens when both sides can see where their interests overlap.
This is the purpose of RELA’s Landplan process. A Landplan gives landowners a structured way to set out the land, the farming enterprise, the family priorities and the commercial objectives that should shape any renewable energy opportunity. For developers, it provides clearer information from the outset. For landowners, it means they enter the process with a clearer view of their land, their priorities and the opportunity in front of them.
Our aim is simple: informed landowners and informed developers make better decisions.
Collaboration helps the right projects move forward
For developers, the market is changing quickly. Portfolios are being reviewed, projects are being consolidated and capital is being directed toward opportunities with the strongest chance of delivery.
In that environment, landowner alignment is not a soft issue. It is a delivery issue.
A technically attractive site can still struggle if the landowner relationship is unclear, if the local context has not been properly understood, or if the commercial terms do not reflect what matters to the people who own and manage the land.
RELA’s role is to help align the right developer with the right project. Through RELA Connect, developers can engage with better-prepared landowners, understand their priorities and identify projects where there is a stronger basis for long-term delivery. That is good for developers. It is also good for landowners, because it gives them a structured and transparent pathway to market.
Collaboration does not end when a project is built
Alignment is not only needed at the start of a project. It also matters over the life of a project.
Renewable energy leases are long-term agreements. Over time, the needs of a farming business can change. A landowner may need capital for debt reduction, succession planning, land acquisition or diversification. A developer may need ongoing certainty, goodwill and a stable rental profile.
That is where RELA Prepay has an important role. Prepay helps landowners shape long-term lease income around their real financial priorities, while maintaining alignment with the project over time. It is not about breaking the relationship between landowner and developer. Done properly, it can strengthen it.
For existing projects, Prepay can help reset strained relationships, tidy up legacy lease issues and create a clearer framework for future project activity. For new projects, it gives both parties another way to think about value from the start.
RELA CEO Michael Katz and General Counsel Jess Salvato accepting the CEC’s Collaboration Award
Why the award matters
The CEC Collaboration Award gives RELA a clear market identity: collaboration.
That is important because collaboration is often treated as a slogan. For RELA, it is more practical than that. It is the work of gathering information, understanding different perspectives and designing commercial pathways that allow both sides to move forward.
It is what sits behind Assess, Connect and Prepay:
Assess helps landowners understand the opportunity before they negotiate.
Connect helps developers and landowners compare opportunities through a structured process where alignment, not just rent, determines the right outcome.
Prepay helps landowners and developers maintain financial alignment over the life of a project.
Together, these tools reflect a simple belief: the renewable energy transition will move faster, and last longer, when landowners and developers are properly aligned.
What comes next
RELA will continue building the platform, tools and partnerships needed to support that alignment.
For landowners, that means better information, clearer choices and stronger commercial pathways.
For developers, it means a more efficient way to identify, engage and progress projects with landowners who understand their options and are ready to participate.
For advisers, financiers and industry partners, it means a clearer process for supporting landowners through some of the most significant land-use decisions they will make.
The transition ahead is large. It will require land, capital, trust and delivery.
Collaboration is not the soft part of that task. It is the mechanism that makes it possible.