Many governments globally have climate change targets requiring rapid decarbonisation, calling for significant renewable energy generation. Utility-scale solar arrays will consume large swathes of land. Rehabilitated mine lands present a unique opportunity to host renewable utility-scale solar and reduce land use conflicts. There is however, to date, insufficient in-depth discussion of this opportunity and barriers to implementation in the academic literature. This paper describes challenges facing the resources industry, using Queensland’s coal sector as a case study, then outlines some of the opportunities that accompany those challenges. Five reasons for reassessing the role of rehabilitated lands for utility-scale solar energy generation are presented – increasing demand for renewable energy, the global decarbonisation agenda, transformation in regional mining economies, as a progressive rehabilitation and post-mining land use, and a solution to reduce land use conflict. The barriers, perceived and actual, must be addressed and broken down to facilitate greater uptake of utility-scale solar onto rehabilitated mine lands. This can allow for a more orderly energy transition, and growth in renewable energy production that matches decarbonising and energy demand pathways, in the right locations and at the right time – with good planning and industry support.