Spanish renewable energy company Acciona Energia said the $2 billion (USD 1.34 billion) Herries Range Wind Farm will be built within the MacIntyre Wind Precinct being developed west of Warwick in southwest Queensland, taking the precinct’s total generation capacity to more than 2 GW – enough renewable energy to power 1.4 million homes.
The precinct, located in the Southern Queensland Renewable Energy Zone, will now include Acciona’s 923 MW MacIntrye and 1,026 MW Herries Range wind farms, and state government-owned CleanCo’s proposed 102.6 MW Karara Wind Farm.
Acciona Energia Managing Director Brett Wickham said the Herries Range Wind Farm would be the company’s third clean energy project in Australia’s Sunshine State, with the 600 MWp Aldoga Solar Farm also under development near Gladstone.
“Expanding the MacIntyre Precinct has been a natural decision for us,” he said. “Our plan is to roll from construction of MacIntyre straight into Herries Range which will mean that workers can move from one large-scale project to the next whilst staying in the same area.”
Construction of the MacIntyre wind farm has already commenced and is expected to be completed in 2024.
Wickham said more details about the Herries Range facility would be made available as the project progresses.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the 180-turbine Herries Range project would support up to 600 additional jobs during construction.
“The first two wind farms within the MacIntyre Wind Precinct, Acciona Energia’s 162-turbine MacIntyre Wind Farm and publicly-owned CleanCo’s proposed 18-turbine Karara Wind Farm, were already expected to support 400 construction jobs,” he said.
“And that’s always been in addition to the 220 workers needed to build Powerlink’s transmission infrastructure that, as part of our new SuperGrid, will deliver the clean energy from MacIntyre Wind Precinct where and when it’s needed.”
Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the expanded MacIntyre precinct is another significant step for the nation as it strives to shield households and business from exposure to volatile and expensive global fossil fuel markets.
“It means another big step towards energy independence, edging closer and closer to a point where our exposure to global fossil fuel markets and their inflationary impact on energy prices will be over,” he said.
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