First concrete foundation poured in Australia’s first gigawatt scale wind project

The first concrete foundation has been poured for what will be Australia’s largest wind farm, and the first gigawatt scale renewable energy project in the country.

The concrete pour was revealed on Wednesday by project developer Acciona Energia, and comes after three months of earthworks and ground preparation.

There will be 180 such concrete foundation pours for each of the massive 5.7MW turbines that will be installed for the 1026MW Macintyre precinct, which will help power the Sun Metals zinc smelter in the north of the state, and has contracted a further 400MW of capacity to the state-owned CleanCo to provide clean power to its customers.

The Nordex Delta 4000-N163/5.7 turbines stand at around 148 metres tall (hub height) and require nearly 2,000 tonnes of concrete in the foundation.

The project is majority owned by Acciona, with a roughly one third stake held by Ark Energy, a subsidiary of Korean Zinc which owns the Sun Metals smelter, the state’s second biggest electricity consumer.

Acciona managing director Brett Wickham said the $2 billion project will create nearly 700 jobs, procure $500 million of work from Queensland businesses, and support hundreds of local businesses in the process.

“We’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve received from the local community as we build this transformational project,” he said in a statement. “We’ve committed to procuring as much work as possible from local businesses so that the benefits are felt right throughout the community.”

State energy minister Mick de Brenni, who is preparing to release a new 10-year energy plan, said the state’s energy transformation is the greatest jobs opportunity in a generation.

“The pouring of the first tower foundation is more proof that renewable energy equals more jobs in regional Queensland,” de Brenni said.

Ark Energy CEO Daniel Kim said Macintyre will help decarbonise the zinc refinery operations in Townsville, enabling it to become one of the first major refineries in the world to produce “green zinc.

The first pouring follows a “morning tea” event where MacIntyre announced $100,000 in community sponsorships, including the Rural Doctors Foundation.