Wind farm dumped from Australia’s first pumped hydro project in 40 years – due to rocky terrain

Renewable energy and storage developer Genex Power has dumped the wind component of its proposed Kidston hybrid project in Queensland, after trying and failing to make the commercial numbers stack up. 

CEOP Craig Francis says the cost of building the wind farm on the rocky, remote site effectively killed off the proposal, even for the downsized 120 megawatt (MW) wind project that the company had been considering, and despite having signed long term PPAs with the likes of EnergyAustralia and Stanwell.

Even if higher electricity prices were much higher, the difficulties at the site meant they still couldn’t make the wind project commercially viable, Francis told Renew Economy on Monday.

The two off-take agreements signed in 2023, one with EnergyAustralia for 30 per cent of the output of the planned wind project and another with Stanwell for 50 per cent of the output, won’t proceed, Francis says. 

Genex, formerly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange but now owned by Japanese company J-Power, is still keen to build a wind project somewhere, however, and balance out its solar, battery and pumped hydro-heavy portfolio.

Instead, Genex will forge ahead with an enlarged 200 MW, four hour battery to take advantage of the 275 kilovolt (kV) power line connecting the site with Townsville.

Genex is also seeking to complete the first pumped hydro project to be built in Australia for four decades, and the first ever by a private company – a 250 MW, eight hour facility that is using a former open pit gold mine some 285 km west of Townsville.

That project, however, has suffered delays and is now not due for completion and commissioning until the third quarter of next year. It had been due to come online in 2026.

The original plans were for a ring of solar and wind alongside the hydro. The currently operating 50 MW solar farm was supposed to be joined by the 258 MW – later reduced to 120 MW – wind project and a 250 MW solar project. Both the additional wind and solar projects have now been abandoned.

While Genex mostly dodged the huge cost blowouts that are still plaguing the much larger Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project, the Kidston development has suffered some delays.

In 2022, the project was delayed when tunnel drilling penetrated water bearing rock and meant drill holes had to be plugged, and industrial action has also held up progress. 

Only one other private pumped hydro project has development approval in Australia, Yancoal’s Stratford project in New South Wales (NSW), which received a green light a month ago, according to project tracker Renewmap.

Five others, all in NSW, have development applications underway and all but one of these has been waiting for a decision for three to five years.

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