First turbine installed at world first wind-solar-battery hub

After having to wait, ironically, for strong winds to subside, the first wind turbine in what will be Australia’s world’s first utility-scale, on-grid wind, solar and battery energy storage project has been installed.

The last blade of the first Vestas 3.6MW turbine was installed on Monday at the 60.2MW first stage of the Kennedy energy hub in north Queensland that is being developed by Windlab and Japan’s Eurus Energy.

The Kennedy project will comprise 40MW of wind, 20MW of solar and 2MW/4MWh of battery storage, although it could be expanded to more than 1.2 GW should the circumstances be right, Windlab has said.

The last 67-metre blade was lifted into place on Friday by a 750-tonne lattice boom mobile crane, which lifted it to the 132-metre high hub.

“This is a great achievement and significant milestone for Kennedy,” said Peter Cowling, country head of Vestas Australia and New Zealand.

“We are now one-step closer to completing this revolutionary project, which has the potential to leverage Australia’s abundant renewable energy resources while ensuring a consistent and reliable electricity supply.”

The construction and engineering are being delivered by a consortium between Vestas and Quanta Solar, with the solar panels and Tesla batteries currently being installed and the sub-station also being upgraded.

“We are pleased to reach another important milestone in making Kennedy Energy Park a reality,” said Windlab CEO Roger Price in a statement. Windlab is due to release its latest results on Wednesday.