Name
Jessica Salvato
Job title
General Counsel
Organisation
RELA Australia
Speaker biography
Jess is a highly respected female leader in law and business, with over a decade of experience, including stints at King & Wood Mallesons and Scentre Group. Specialising in property transactions and general commercial law, Jess has represented a wide range of clients, from property owners and developers to financiers, across diverse property sectors. Jess now has a deep focus on the renewable energy land space, utilising her extensive background to spearhead sustainable initiatives. Her dedication to excellence and commitment to driving positive change not only benefits RELA’s clients but also contributes to the advancement of the industry as a whole. In her spare time Jess enjoys a country lifestyle with her family in Mudgee, including working with horses and tending to their ever expanding vegetable garden.
Speaking At
Presentation title
Alignment at the farm gate: turning land access risk into bankable certainty
Presentation summary
Onshore wind projects stall where they meet private land. The friction is rarely about turbines alone, it is about misaligned objectives, unclear terms and social licence fatigue. This talk sets out a practical alignment model that reduces time to FID by standardising how land is assessed, how hosts engage, and how agreements reach finance-ready form while farming continues. It covers a structured, competitive pathway for host selection, codified coexistence requirements that reflect real farm operations, and a lender-accepted consent approach to optional rent prepayment that keeps host businesses resilient through drought and price cycles. The result is fewer redrafts, clearer expectations and better community outcomes, which flow through to delivery risk and financing confidence. The focus is wind on farms, but the method generalises to mixed portfolios.
