Another three big wind and battery projects sucked into EPBC process

Australia is experiencing a wave of so-called energy parks and hubs, with another two heading into the federal environmental approval process just in the past week, along with a third big wind and battery hybrid project.

Westwind Energy wants to put 200 wind turbines and maybe a battery, size to be confirmed, at a proposed 1.5 gigawatt (GW) facility called the Cameron Downs Energy Park, near Hughendon in north Queensland. 

In the south of the state, on the Western Downs, Cubico wants to build 183 wind turbines at its proposed 1.45 GW Middle Creek Energy Hub that will also feature a 200 megawatt/hour (MW/h) battery.

Down in NSW, RES Australia’s massive Argoon wind farm has also joined the EPBC approval queue. 

The 900 MW wind project and five hour, 460 MW big battery has joined a raft of projects competing for access in New South Wales’ (NSW) South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), but the two developers behind the project are not calling it a park nor a hub, just a hybrid.

The use of the term energy parks is not new, but it is becoming more common – and usually refers to the fact that the wind or solar plant that is proposed will be accompanied by a big battery, or other storage facility.

Other descriptions favoured by renewable developers include “green power hub” – used by Neoen for its Western Downs and Bulgana facilities – or renewable zone, as Neoen is also using for the massive Goyder North and South projects in South Australia.

Energy parks can have different meaning in different locations.

California-based Fereidoon Sioshansi wrote in Renew Economy in December, an energy park is “where multiple renewable energy sources and storage are co-located with customer loads such as manufacturing facilities or data centers and connected to the grid at a single point of interconnection (POI).”

Renew Economy put the question to Cubico and Westwind about how they’re describing these particular projects, but did not receive a response by publication. According to federal planning documents, neither plans to be hooked into a site that’s also home to energy-hungry industries such as data centres. 

Renewables developer Someva is one company that has used the energy park moniker to describe its Pottinger wind, solar and battery project near Conargo in NSW, but development director Tim Mead says it was to highlight the hybrid nature of what they’re trying to build.

“Co-located generation, complementary generation and an option for behind the metre storage. In other words energy that would otherwise be curtailed would be absorbed by a battery,” he told Renew Economy.

He says the kinds of energy parks Sioshansi was referring to don’t really exist in Australia’s still-maturing market.

The biggest opportunity today however is in luring data centres to the regions where the generation is done — to exactly the sites currently calling themselves parks and hubs.

“The data centre idea is the most exciting in the short term. You’ve got decarbonised fuels that everyone keeps talking about, but you’ve got to take a view as to when they will be commercial viable,” he says.

“The power requirements for the data centre industry are growing exponentially and there’s only so many city locations, or edge data centres, that are available. In time data centres will have to move to where the power is rather than being located where the digital users are.

“The sooner data centre operators form a view that [going to the source] is going to be essential in order to meet their own demand for power it might make the rollout of both industries more streamlined.”

The chatter in Mead’s industry is currently around whether the new AI data centres will be look to the regions, where the power is, from the start rather than trying to find space in cities.

Already Engie is in talks with a data centre operator to put down roots at its 1.9 GW wind, solar and battery project The Plains Renewable Energy Park.

The move could free up connection capacity into the grid for other generators given the data centre’s electricity consumption doesn’t need to be transported along the grid, Engie’s head of Australian renewables Laura Caspari told the AFR in January.

Almost 3GW – if the Queensland government will allow it

The two massive Queensland projects are set to be standalone power plants that could deliver almost 3GW of power to Queensland.

Both wanted to tap into the previous Queensland government’s goal to source 70 per cent of the state’s energy from renewables by 3032 and 80 per cent by 2035, but they are likely to be affected by the state’s new rules for wind farms. 

Under the previous Labor government “state significant projects” entered a streamlined process.

Last week the new Liberal government now all projects must consult with local communities, and answer questions about impacts and the effects on farmland. It had already paused four wind projects until they’ve done more community consultation and delivered impact assessments.

Premier David Crisafulli wants the state’s coal and gas generation to remain online indefinitely, and appears to be deprioritising wind and solar power with the sudden rule change.

In its EPBC referral, Cubico says it has been talking to host landowners and direct neighbours in order to design the project, and notified neighbours and later the wider community in late 2024. 

Westwind is offering an annual contribution of $2,000 per turbine towards a local community benefits scheme that would be developed in consultation with the community.

Adding wind to grazing, coal seam gas land

Cameron Downs will sit on 33,320 hectares across six freehold lots and one land lease lot, with the actual area being built on covering just over 1200 hectares.

The turbines will have a tip height of up to 280m and a rotor diameter of 200m.

The project was referred into the federal environmental process because although the land has historically been used for cattle grazing, the threatened squatter pigeon is known to live in the area. Koalas are considered likely to be in the area, due to part of the site taking in the densely wooded Desert Uplands, and five important bird species are thought to potentially occur in the area.

Cubico’s project will connect to the National Energy Market (NEM) via the existing Columboola to Wandoan South 275kV transmission line, some 22km to the south.

It says the Middle Park land has been historically cleared for grazing, horticulture and coal seam gas operations, and sites next to two state timber plantations. 

The EPBC referral is most concerned with six threatened animal species, the vulnerable painted honeyeater, white-throated needletail, the endangered greater glider and koala, critically endangered boggomoss snail, and the short beaked echidna.

REZ protection

The Argoon wind farm, a partnership between Res Australia and Aula Energy, and is also sensitive, due to being on producing farmland. 

But it’s also inside the proposed South West REZ which means the path to approval is vastly simplified.

The total project takes in slightly more than 42,000 hectares with the 900MW wind farm split across two sites totalling almost 11,000 hectares.

The whole thing could be operational by 2029, if the state and federal approvals processes go to plan. 

The turbines will have a maximum blade tip height of up to 280m and a hub height of up to 180m, and connect into an onsite 330 kV substation which will send the electricity to the grid via a new 330 kV transmission line connecting to the proposed Dinawan substation.

The initial scoping report found six threatened ecological communities, 44 threatened species and 10 migratory species in and around the site. 

The flora and fauna the federal environmental approval is concerned with are endangered weeping myall woodlands and critically endangered natural grasslands of the Murray Valley Plains.

The preliminary biodiversity survey identified eight threatened flora species listed under the EPBC Act, as well as eight bird species, two mammals, one fish and one frog species.