The study faced a Senate disallowance motion led by the Greens and Labor, who have slammed the study as a waste of taxpayers' money.
But most locals in Collinsville, 280 kilometres south of Townsville, say they are happy the election promise by the Coalition will be honoured.
Retailer David Evans said he believed the investment in the Shine Energy project would bring jobs back to the 1,100-strong town, which boasted a population of more than 4,000 when he opened his business in 1984.
"Basically all of the transmission networks for North Queensland centralise around Collinsville, so it's the ideal site for a power station as well," he said.
"There is a big push in the area for renewables, but I think we still need baseload power to bring security to the system.
"Ninety-five per cent of locals are supportive, definitely."
Mr Evans said the fluctuations of the global coal market, which employed hundreds of locals at the Sonoma and Collinsville mines, could be tempered with greater local coal demand.
But others were more sceptical of the jobs promised and the viability of a coal-fired power station.
Wildlife carer and retired teacher Carol Cosentino said the promise of jobs ignored the realities of the town's declining skills base.
"I think [Shine Energy] have fed us a fairy story. People think it's going to be wonderful, but it's not realistic," she said.
"I don't think the feasibility study should go ahead, it's a waste of money … we don't have the skilled labour to run a power station and they won't build homes here, they'll have to build homes for them.
"Young people are geared up for the mining industry and not the power industry."
Mr Evans said recently built solar farms in the area had failed to replace the jobs lost when the coal-fired station closed.
"The [former] Collinsville Power Station opened up with 360 jobs, the solar farms employ about six or eight people at the moment … once the solar farms develop they do not create jobs, that's the fact," he said.
The Clean Energy Council's director of energy generation, Anna Freeman, said the sector understood the sceptical public perception of her industry's pledge to create regional jobs.
"Yes, you're going to see a lot of jobs up front in construction and the jobs in operations and maintenance are significantly fewer," she said.
But Ms Freeman added the renewable energy workforce would continue to grow if transmission capacity was improved, unlocking up to 8,000 megawatts of generation.
