Huge Fortescue wind farm seeks federal green tick after halving proposed turbine numbers

Andrew Forrest’s 2 gigawatt wind plans to help decarbonise his Pilbara iron ore operations have rejoined the queue for federal environmental approval, following a “substantial redesign” of the proposed project, including a halving of the number of turbines.

Pilbara Energy, a subsidiary of Forrest’s iron ore behemoth Fortescue, is proposing to develop the Bonney Downs wind farm around 9 km south-west of the town of Nullagine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, near the company’s Christmas Creek iron ore mine site.

The original plans, as Renew Economy reported in October of last year, proposed the installation of up to 200 wind turbines and six substations, with a target installed renewable energy capacity of around 2.1 gigawatts (GW).

The “disturbance area” of the project was proposed to include the Bonney Downs, Hillside and Roy Hill pastoral leases – the latter held by avowed renewables opponent and fellow iron ore magnate, Gina Rinehart.

The proposed project had also sparked a legal tussle with Alinta Energy and the new owner of its Pilbara assets, APA Group, over its own renewable energy plans for the region, which appeared to overlap with Bonney Downs.

But updated referral documents published by the Western Australia Environment Protection Authority late last month revealed a substantial redesign of the project to more than halve its total development footprint, while still aiming for 2.1 GW of generation capacity.

The re-jigged plans have now been referred for assessment under the federal government’s EPBC Act.

As Renew Economy reported earlier this month, the new proposal is for “the installation of up to 100 wind turbines and associated infrastructure, with a target installed renewable energy capacity of approximately 2.1 Gigawatts (GW),” according to the WA EPA documents.

And the plans note that the actual power generation of the proposal may differ to the target capacity, depending on the efficiency of the turbine equipment once installed and throughout the life of the wind farm.

Pilbara Energy says the type of turbines used in the project could include the Nabrawind self erecting tower technology that Fortescue is testing out at a standalone pilot wind project right next door to the proposed Bonney Downs project.

The Nullagine Pilot Wind Farm, made up of 17 of the Nabralift turbines, is a stand-alone proof-of-concept project that will generate operational data and learning to inform future decision-making on larger developments, while also replacing the diesel generators at Christmas Creek mine.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Pilot is not a staged ‘first phase’ or component of the Bonney Downs Wind Farm and is excluded from the Bonney Downs referral and associated Proposed Action Area,” the referral documents say.

“The East Pilbara dominant land uses include grazing on native pastures, conservation reserves and mining leases. There are 109 active iron ore mines with the East Pilbara producing half of the Pilbara’s total iron ore production and generating $57.6 billion in commodities in 2020.”

The documents state that the Bonney Downs wind farm is a controlled action under the EPBC Act due to “the loss of 910.26 ha of fauna habitat (excluding previously cleared area), some of which is considered critical habitat for EPBC Act listed species.

“Rehabilitation post construction will re-establish fauna habitat in temporarily disturbed areas,” the documents say.

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