Name
Thomasen Knight
Job title
Regional Programs Manager
Organisation
RE-Alliance
Speaker biography
In her role at RE-Alliance, Thomasen supports rural and regional leaders experiencing large-scale renewable energy development through facilitated peer learning and connection. She convenes RE-Alliance’s National and WA Regional Leaders Networks and organised the Regional Leaders Summit 2025.
Thomasen works best as a connector, bridging the divides between stakeholders, facilitating partnerships to collectively problem solve and supporting capacity building. Her experience includes 10 years in Local and State Government and 5 years of climate-related strategy and audit work in consultancies.
Thomasen gets dizzy thinking about the wildly beautiful solutions that could and should exist in this energy shift we’re experiencing. Working with communities, she hopes to enable some of these creative, innovative, fair and fast solutions.
Thomasen works best as a connector, bridging the divides between stakeholders, facilitating partnerships to collectively problem solve and supporting capacity building. Her experience includes 10 years in Local and State Government and 5 years of climate-related strategy and audit work in consultancies.
Thomasen gets dizzy thinking about the wildly beautiful solutions that could and should exist in this energy shift we’re experiencing. Working with communities, she hopes to enable some of these creative, innovative, fair and fast solutions.
Speaking At
Presentation title
Energy shift facilitators: Spotlight on WA’s regional leaders driving local change
Presentation summary
Local trust and timely delivery of large-scale renewable energy infrastructure depends on place-based leadership in rural and regional WA. To date, governments and industry have underappreciated the importance of local leadership. The lack of recognition and support for these leaders, often from under-resourced sectors such as local government and not for profit, is hindering the delivery and local value created in the shift to renewables.
Leaders navigating renewables development in their regions are often powerhouses in their communities with diverse backgrounds in economic development, strategy, planning, sustainability, primary industries, community development and more. However, the sheer volume of information to digest and work to implement, on top of their business as usual, has many feeling isolated and overwhelmed. This is a dangerous place for a key stakeholder to be in.
Despite the challenges, regional leaders are creating networks, learning from each other, and continuing to show up to solve challenges and find solutions. The Regional Leader’s Summit in August 2025, the first event of its kind, brought this critical group of leaders together to learn from each other and discuss what’s working. WA was well-represented at the Summit with a strong cohort of leaders from local government, regional development plus agriculture and conservation not for profits.
Presenters in this session will articulate the structural challenges in the energy transition that create uncertainty and risk for local communities and showcase the ways they are building architecture for collaborating with government and industry.
Leaders navigating renewables development in their regions are often powerhouses in their communities with diverse backgrounds in economic development, strategy, planning, sustainability, primary industries, community development and more. However, the sheer volume of information to digest and work to implement, on top of their business as usual, has many feeling isolated and overwhelmed. This is a dangerous place for a key stakeholder to be in.
Despite the challenges, regional leaders are creating networks, learning from each other, and continuing to show up to solve challenges and find solutions. The Regional Leader’s Summit in August 2025, the first event of its kind, brought this critical group of leaders together to learn from each other and discuss what’s working. WA was well-represented at the Summit with a strong cohort of leaders from local government, regional development plus agriculture and conservation not for profits.
Presenters in this session will articulate the structural challenges in the energy transition that create uncertainty and risk for local communities and showcase the ways they are building architecture for collaborating with government and industry.
