By Jeremy Cook
The largest operating onshore wind farm in Australia and the southern hemisphere has finally begun generating power right on Warwick’s doorstep.
Spanish renewables developer Acciona connected the first 27 of the MacIntyre wind farm’s 162 turbines to the national electricity grid late-last week in what marked a watershed moment for the project.
“To see it doing what it’s meant to be doing, exporting clean renewable energy to the grid is such an important achievement,” Acciona engineering director Andrew Tshaikiwsky told Nine News.
In a statement, Acciona managing director Brett Wickham said it also marked a significant milestone for Australia’s energy diversification.
“Major projects such as the MacIntyre wind farm will make a material contribution to decarbonising Queensland’s energy consumption, particularly in hard-to-abate industrial sectors,” Mr Wickham said.
“Helping large industrial and commercial energy users to decarbonise supports these important industries to stay in Australia.”
Spanning 36,000 hectares across 12 properties west of Warwick, the site will be capable of generating 923 megawatts once fully operational, enough to power more than 600,000 homes whilst almost doubling Queensland’s total wind energy generation.
Energy exports will progressively ramp up over the next 12 months as the remaining turbines are switched on. It is understood a further 27 turbines are planned to be in operation by this Christmas. Acciona have anticipated for all turbines to be fully assembled and erected by that same time.
In the more than two years since construction started, the project sourced more than $680 million in labour, services and materials from across Queensland with more than four million work hours having already been spent during the building phase.
When fully operational the project will employ up to 40 people on site.
“The construction of the MacIntyre wind farm has created significant economic activity across Queensland, creating jobs and procurement opportunities for large and small businesses alike,” Mr Wickham said.
“From concreters to caterers, we have sourced more than $115 million in work and services from more than 80 businesses in and around the Darling Downs region and hired hundreds of local workers.”
The project forms just one component of the greater MacIntyre wind precinct which also includes the proposed Herries Range wind farm, currently in late-stage development.
When complete, approximately two gigawatts of renewable energy, enough to power more than one million homes, will be generated from the entire precinct.
The MacIntyre wind farm will also support other commercial energy users in decarbonising their operations through two power purchase agreements with Queensland government-owned companies Stanwell Corporation and CleanCo which total 550MW.
“Major projects such as the MacIntyre wind farm will make a material contribution to decarbonising Queensland’s energy consumption, particularly in hard-to-abate industrial sectors,” Mr Wickham said.
“Helping large industrial and commercial energy users to decarbonise supports these important industries to stay in Australia.”
The MacIntyre wind farm is a joint-venture between Acciona Energia and Ark Energy, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc.
