TagEnergy, the Portugal-based company that owns Australia’s biggest wind farm, has set its sights on another landmark project, an 800 megawatt wind facility with a massive 2,400 megawatt hour battery in Queensland.
The company and development partner LP Renewables are seeking a green tick for the Goombi wind project under the federal government’s EPBC Act, and a state planning application may not be far behind.
The Goombi wind project foresees 107 turbines set in the Western Downs region just west of Chinchilla, a place so pock-marked by coal seam gas wells they show up as acne-like blemishes on Google Maps.
The Goombi project would share some of that land which hugs the 275 kilovolt Powerlink transmission line which takes electricity made in the deep west to Brisbane and New South Wales (NSW).
The project is to be supported by a massive 600 MW, four hour battery, which would make it one of the largest in the country if built now, and would be the biggest associated with any wind complex to date.
TagEnergy owns the Golden Plains wind farm in Victoria, already the biggest in the country and currently in the process of building a second stage that would take its capacity to 1.33 gigawatts. It will buy the Goombi project once it’s finished.
According to the EPBC referral for Goombi, the developer LP Renewables is proposing to cover a 14,175 hectare (ha) patch of land with turbines and the battery, although only 1,240 ha of this will be disturbed.
And it’s proposing to start this in the third quarter of 2027, with construction to finish in 2030.
The project will sit between Miles and Chinchilla in Queensland’s coal seam gas region.
The developer will need to get community consultation and benefits offers locked in before it can think of approaching the Queensland government for permission, following rule changes last year which now also apply to batteries.
In May, the Crisafulli government unveiled strict new planning rules, requiring solar and wind farm developers to enter into “binding agreements” with local governments, setting out the social impacts and community benefits of proposed projects, before they can apply for development applications with the state.
The referral shows that LP Renewables has been talking to the community since 2022, and its last meeting with state regulators was in July last year.
It’s briefed treasurer and energy minister David Janetzki and deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie, who has been responsible for calling in or otherwise undermining wind and now battery projects in the state.
Discussions with the Western Downs regional council ramped up last year with a spate of meetings in the second half around a community benefits agreement structure ahead of a development application.
A neighbour benefit will pay out $5,000 per turbine for houses within 1.5km to 2km, declining to $1000 per turbine for those living 3km to 3.5km from a structure.
TagEnergy has experience with the old EPBC process, with four projects currently being assessed and four which have made it through.
The Goombi project however will likely benefit from the reforms passed last year which will fast track decisions and streamline the process to getting there.
In Queensland, the developer is also developing the Pa Rooga wind farm in the state, along with the Raglan, Nebo and Townsville big batteries and the Burdekin solar and battery project.
Only remnants remaining
Despite the extensive coal seam gas fields which the Goombi wind project will fit around, and intensive agricultural activities on the lease area, the area is within the central Queensland Brigalow Belt bioregion.
But important ecosystems have been damaged already by the historical uses of the land.
“Pressures from existing land uses and disturbance, combined with other agricultural practices, have contributed to a reduction in overall habitat,” the EBPC referral says.
“Additional disturbances include land clearing, thinning, increased presence of exotic weeds and pests, habitat fragmentation, and erosion, resulting in a general reduction in habitat extent and condition throughout much of the Project Area.”
Across the 14,175 ha area, surveys confirm the presence of four threatened fauna species, the glossy black-cockatoo, painted honeyeater, white-throated needletail, and the south-eastern long-eared bat.
The survey work also found five more important regional ecosystems than the state mapping had located, but most of these had suffered from logging or fragmentation in the past, and currently suffer from weed infestations.
Wetlands have been trampled by cattle, and six other types of habitat areas found on the site are all compromised in some way.
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