Signs of life for wind and battery projects stuck in state planning limbo, but minister still has final word

Two wind and battery storage projects which have been stuck in Queensland’s “call in” queue for the longest are moving forward, with the developer getting close to resubmitting a revised development application.

Queensland deputy premier and planning minister Jarrod Bleijie called in the 700 megawatt (MW) Marmadua Energy Park and the 1.32 gigawatt (GW) Middle Creek Energy Hub in June last year.

Letters sent to project owner Cubico demanded responses to questions around completed voluntary benefits agreements for both projects, even though those rules were only revealed in May, months after the original planning documents were lodged.

A year later, the developer has just finished social impact assessments for both wind projects and is now talking to the Western Downs regional council to sign community benefits agreements (CBA).

Both of these are required before planning applications can be lodged under the new rules set down last year.

Cubico now expects to resubmit development applications for both projects later this year.  

The Marmadua Energy Park’s up-to 100 wind turbines and 200 MW, four hour battery are proposed for north of the Kumbarilla State Forest, or about 22km from Tara and 37km from Dalby. Cubico hopes the two-year build will start in 2027, according to the project website.

Directly north, around 15 km from Wandoan and Guluguba, is Middle Creek with its up-to 183 turbines and same-sized battery.

Cubico also co-owns the Wambo wind farm to the west whose second stage is commissioning now.

No get-out-of-jail card

Signed CBAs and completed social impact assessments do not get the projects out of the call-in process, but will mean they meet all of the new requirements for wind projects, that were applied retrospectively.

A ministerial call-in notice allows the minister to take over planning applications for individual projects.

In Queensland, it has been used to damaging effect, with Bleijie cancelling the already approved Moonlight Range seemingly on political grounds and calling in a range of wind and battery projects for not meeting the rules unveiled in May for wind and solar, and December for batteries. 

All of these already had planning applications lodged before the rules were changed. 

The new rules are causing problems for unprepared councils, who must now sign a CBA before a renewable energy project is allowed to lodge its planning application, and have frightened off investors.

The Marmadua and Middle Creek projects are in the electorate of former Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Fortuitously they are also in the Western Downs regional council area, an organisation with extensive experience with major energy projects and one of the first councils to finalise policies and practices on how it wanted to handle CBAs.

It signed its first CBA in April, over the proposed 800 MW Goombi wind project to invest $30 million over 35 years into the community.

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