Roy Jones made a living in the fossil fuel industry for three decades but says he always knew the move away from coal was inevitable.
The Gladstone retiree said the move to transition Queensland's coal-fired power stations into "clean energy hubs" as part of the state government's $62 billion energy plan provided certainty for regional workers.
"It won't happen overnight," he said.
"No-one wants to be without a job suddenly, so if the government can guarantee there's a job to carry on with, that gives [workers] peace of mind into the future."
A 10-year clean energy plan, estimated to support almost 100,000 jobs by 2040, was unveiled by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday.
Job security
Ms Palaszczuk said all publicly owned coal-fired power stations would progressively become "clean energy hubs" from 2027, but not "until there is a replacement firmed generation".
She signed a deal negotiated with the Electrical Trades Union ensuring power station workers would be retrained or redeployed to other projects in government-owned operations.
Mr Jones, who worked at the Gladstone and Callide power stations, said while it was comforting news, workers on the ground would be desperate for clarity.
"I don't understand what they mean by renewable hubs," he said.
"A lot of jobs in the renewable sector won't be suitable for people working in the power stations, so they'll have to be retrained if they're interested in going into the renewable sector."
Ms Palaszczuk also said the government's new renewable energy targets of 70 per cent by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035 would be legislated, and Queensland would have "no regular reliance on coal" by 2035.
The 'largest pumped hydro in the world'
Two pumped hydros were named in the energy plan, one at Borumba Dam near Gympie, and a second at the Pioneer-Burdekin project, west of Mackay.
Ms Palaszczuk said it was the "battery of the north", which would be "the largest pumped hydro energy storage in the world".
In a report, the government identified the Pioneer-Burdekin site as favourable but final investment decisions were yet to be made.
"The preferred site is in the western Pioneer Valley with the upper reservoirs located at the head of the Burdekin River catchment, and the lower reservoir in the Pioneer River catchment," it said.
It said infrastructure including a power station, turbines, tunnels, and cables would be required, pending environmental and water approvals.
Mackay Conservation Group coordinator Peter McCallum said he was concerned about the environmental impacts on the Burdekin Basin.
"The Pioneer Valley's water has already been fully allocated," he said.
"The water will have to be taken away from the environment, from farmers or from urban users, and we don't think any of those groups need to have their water taken away from them.
"In the long term, batteries are offering the most economic storage solution for electricity, so pumped hydro could become a stranded asset into the future."
Gladstone: Transmission and training hub
Further south, Gladstone was announced as the location for one of two "transmission and training hubs" to skill workers for the energy transition.
Gladstone is Queensland's oldest and largest coal-fired power station, owned by NRG Gladstone Operating Services, and is scheduled to close in 2035.
After 44 years of work at the Gladstone power station, Bob Bowden is a week from retirement.
He said he supported the move to keep coal-fired power stations around until renewables became reliable.
"Gladstone has its ups and downs, boom and bust town, and the price of the houses, et cetera, reflects it," he said.
"But there are other industries starting."
What about the jobs?
The Stanwell Power Station, near Rockhampton, is one of several state-owned coal-fired power stations to become a "clean energy hub".
Stanwell business owner Gurpreet Singh said the guarantee that workers would be assured of jobs in the future would bring confidence.
"I'm pretty much dependent on locals so if they've got a job they support small shops like us, so that's really good actually," he said.
"Families in the town depend on our power station."
Jaclyn McCosker, a Gladstone-based climate and energy campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the community was enthusiastic but waiting on more detail.
"The workers on the ground doing the hard yakka have a lot of questions — where will the infrastructure be? What will the jobs be like? Who will be working in these jobs?" she said.
Ms McCosker said her own family's reliance on the coal industry allowed her to empathise with those feeling uncertain.
"There was fear that we could be losing our jobs, losing our houses, economic collapse — people are relieved to actually see that there has been thinking on this [and] funding put towards this," she said.
The Next Economy chief executive Amanda Cahill said she had worked with communities like Gladstone to prepare them for economic change.
"They're not talking about the closure of coal plants, they're just talking about using those coal plants in a different kind of way to prop up the energy system," Dr Cahill said.
She said the main challenge would be training and preparing the workforce for the industry.
"I'm actually worried about the fact that we don't have enough workers in Queensland to deliver on it and the scale of the projects that are in this plan," she said.
"There are two other aspects we need to be thinking about here: investment in services, so these regions are able to deal with the influx of people, and infrastructure."
