Days after lodging new plans for a more than 500 megawatt wind farm in south-west New South Wales, Squadron Energy has dumped plans for another project it had proposed for construction in the state’s hotly contested New England renewable energy zone.
The Andrew Forrest-owned Squadron announced this week that it has decided not to continue development of the 426 megawatt (MW) Boorolong Wind Farm, following a review of the company’s development pipeline.
The Boorolong project was proposed for about 15km north-west of Armidale inside the New England renewable energy zone (REZ), alongside Origin Energy’s even bigger Northern Tablelands wind project to the west.
The wind farm had been on hold since May, pending the result of the review and – as Squadron put it at the time – to “work through some project issues.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Squadron said it would drop the project in favour of “more advanced projects in our development pipeline, backing the projects with the strongest technical, commercial and community foundations.”
Squadron, owned by iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Forrest, has been rationalising other parts of its portfolio recently, including selling off its 75 per cent stake in Windlab to Federation Asset Management, another investor founded by Macquarie Group alumni.
As part of the deal, Squadron and Windlab will continue working on the 1.4 gigawatt (GW) Bungaban wind and 500 MW Bungaban solar projects, and associated battery storage, in Queensland via a 50/50 joint venture.
Earlier this year, Squadron also withdrew the Jeremiah wind and battery projects, located between Yass and Gundagai, from the NSW planning process.
But elsewhere the company is forging ahead, including with its relatively new plans for the 558 MW Banandra wind farm south-east of Darlington Point, and just east of the newly created South West renewable energy zone (REZ), which has already reached capacity.
And east of Wellington in NSW, Squadron is roughly one-third of the way through building the only wind farm currently under construction in the state, the 414-megawatt (MW) Uungula wind farm.
The decision to abandon the Boorolong plans is bound to please some of the anti-wind contingent in the region – not least of all One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce, who is the federal member for the electorate of New England – and the state Coalition opposition, which last month vowed to scrap the New England REZ.
Local landholder Tony Menken told 7 News on Thursday that Squadron had failed to get the local community on board with the wind farm.
“Ultimately, their lack of engagement, real engagement with the community, has led to their failure,” he said.
Another local, Stuart Grills, described the decision as “a really good result.”
On the flip-side, there will be some parties that are disappointed by Squadron’s decision, including some of the landowners that were penciled in to host the Boorolong turbines.
“I want this thing to go ahead because I don’t have 20 years to hang on,” one Armidale local told Renew Economy in May, when the project was first paused.
“I think we really need to get things happening. Climate change is real, we’re in the middle of a horrible drought, and will this be as bad as the 2019 one? I don’t know.
“We want electricity, we want heating and it can’t come without some sort of sacrifice, some sort of price.”
In a statement, Squadron thanked the project’s landowners and neighbours, as well as the Armidale Regional Council, Uralla Shire Council and the local community “for the time they have generously provided to discuss and provide feedback on the project.”
“Squadron Energy remains committed to supporting the energy transition in New South Wales,” a statement says.
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