Work stops on Forrest’s Clarke Creek wind farm as project managers changed

Work on one of the biggest wind projects in Australia has come to an abrupt halt after the owners, Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy, decided to change project managers and take over the running of the Clarke Creek wind project.

The 450MW project in central Queensland is the first stage of an ambitious multi-gigawatt renewable precinct to be built by Squadron Energy, which recently paid around $4 billion for the renewable developer CWP, which has expertise in building large scale wind and solar projects.

The irony is that the project manager being replaced, Windlab, is another company in Forrest’s portfolio. His private interests own 75 per cent of that company, and it is thought that Squadron wanted the contract brought in under a wholly owned company.

The change of project manager meant a change of construction equipment, and all work abruptly ceased on the project on Wednesday afternoon as equipment was removed.

It is understood the timing of the changeover also comes before the deliver of the project’s major components, which will include some logistically challenging deliveries of huge turbines and blades along a 300km route.