The Queensland state government says it has allocated $362.5 million to help build the first stage of a new 500MW wind project in the Western Downs, and to help connect what will be the country’s biggest wind precinct to the grid.
The investments were announced by Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday morning on her Facebook page, which seems to be the new platform for such announcements, and comes a day after the state’s new EV subsidy and targets were revealed in the same way.
The scant details on the Facebook announcement included $192.5 million to help build the Wambo wind farm near Dalby in the state’s south. Wambo, which will deliver a first stage of around 250MW, is owned by UK investment firm Cubico.
Wambo has planning approval to build a 500MW wind farm and an accompanying big battery, possibly sized at 50MW/200MWh, but the first stage referred to by Palaszczuk speaks of just 42 turbines that will likely deliver around 252MW of capacity.
The project will now be developed as a 50/50 venture between Cubico and the government owned Stanwell, which will receive the $192.5 million to fund its share of the first 252MW stage of the project. The second stage will depend on grid availability and feasibility studies.
Stanwell CEO Michael O’Rourke said in a statement that Wambo was one of a number of strategic partnerships Stanwell was pursuing to support the diversification of its business.
“We are developing a pipeline of renewable energy projects to meet the growing commercial and industrial customer demand for low emission energy solutions, and to provide opportunities for our people,” O’Rourke said.
“Our proposed joint venture with Cubico could see Stanwell own 50 per cent of the Wambo Wind Farm’s output and dispatch the remaining 50 per cent of the power generated under a power purchase agreement.”
“This further reinforces our position as the nation’s renewable energy superpower with this REZ unlocking up to 1,500MW of hosting capacity,” de Brenni said.
“The precinct is well positioned in an area of high and consistent wind resource, with a total of 180 turbines to be built across both wind farms.”
Powerlink Chief Executive Paul Simshauser said finalising the agreement with Acciona Energía and CleanCo to connect the massive project to the existing transmission network near Millmerran was an enormous feat.
“At more than 1000MW, this is the first time we’ve connected a project of this scale to our network here in Queensland,” Simshauser said.
Acciona Energía managing director Brett Wickham construction of the wind farm was expected to start in the second quarter of 2022.
The investments were welcomed by advocacy group Solar Citizens, which urged the government to allocate the rest of the $2 billion Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund.
“The sooner they allocate the rest of the fund, the sooner Queenslanders will see more bill savings,” Solar Citizens’ Stephanie Gray said.
“Queensland has world-class solar and wind resources that can be turned into abundant cheap energy to power new manufacturing industries in renewable hydrogen and solar panel production, and minerals processing for electric vehicle batteries,” she said.
“Spending the $2 billion clean energy fund and rolling out Renewable Energy Zones is the first step to turning Queensland into a renewable energy jobs powerhouse.”
We will bring further details of the Wambo support package if and when we receive them.
