New 150MW wheatbelt wind project waved through by environment body

A substantial 30-turbine wind project in the Western Australian Wheatbelt is a step closer to development after the state Environment Protection Authority said the site’s potential environmental impacts did not warrant formal assessment.

State owned utility Synergy has outlined plans to develop the King Rocks Wind Farm, comprising up to 30 wind turbines with up to 150MW of capacity and powering an equivalent 100,000 households.

The project is planned for development across three thousand hectares of cleared agricultural land and will be connected to the Western Power network via the 132kV Kondinin to Bounty line.

Alongside the turbines, the proposal includes plans for underground cabling, communication masts, electricity transformers and a site office, approximately 35 kilometres north-east of Hyden townsite in the Kondinin Shire.

The Environmental Protection Authority published its decision to not formally assess Synergy’s proposal on Monday, saying the potential impacts of the development could be managed through the company’s outlined mitigation and management measures.

The development will need to obtain permission for further land clearing and water licensing in order to proceed with the proposal.

The construction period is expected to last around 24 months, and could begin as early as 2023.

Synergy has embarked on a series of major renewable energy and storage projects over the past year, including WA’s first large-scale battery storage project.

The state government is planning to invest – through Synergy – up to $3.8 billion in new green energy infrastructure, following its commitment to close all state-owned coal power stations by 2030.

Western Australia’s renewables industry has also attracted substantial private investment, including a number of wind and solar farms, and has been earmarked for one of the country’s first offshore wind zones, with up to half a dozen different project proposals emerging to date.