South Australia-headquartered renewable energy gen-tailer Zen Energy, through its joint venture with Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy, has submitted plans for the Hookey Creek Solar Farm and battery energy storage project for review under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
The federal government administered EPBC review process aims to protect nationally threatened species and ecological communities.
The proposed Hookey Creek project, being developed across a 260-hectare site near Woolooga, about 25 kilometres northwest of Gympie, is to include a 100 MW solar farm and a 200 MW battery with up to eight hours of storage capacity.
The project site – bordered by Lightsource bp’s operational 214 MW Woolooga Solar Farm and under-construction 222 MW / 640 MWh battery, and its approved 350 MW Lower Wonga Solar Farm and battery development – is currently used for cattle grazing.
In documents submitted to the EPBC portal, Zen said the project will involve limited clearing of native vegetation and noted it is considering sheep grazing through the solar array areas to enable continued agricultural use of the land.
The project will connect to the Queensland electricity grid via the nearby 275 kV Woolooga substation with the produced energy to be exported and traded on the National Electricity Market. Pending project approval, the proponents anticipate commercial operations of the facility will commence by September 2028.
The Hookey Creek venture is part of a larger 1.4 GW solar and battery energy storage pipeline being developed by Zen and HD Renewable Energy through their ZEBRE joint venture.
The joint entity’s flagship investment is the Solar River solar and battery project in South Australia (SA) that is in the final stage of the grid connection application process. The project includes 256 MW of storage and 210 MW of solar capacity. The 111 MW / 285 MWh Templers battery project in SA, that is currently working through the commissioning phase, is another project in the JV’s portfolio, along with the 105 MW / 420 MWh Wagga Wagga battery project planned for New South Wales.
The JV’s Hookey Creek project is the latest renewable energy development planned for the Gympie region which has emerged as a favoured location for clean energy developers with multiple projects being progressed in the area.
In addition to the neighbouring Woolooga and Lower Wonga projects mentioned above, Greek developer Metlen is currently building the 120 MW Munna Solar Farm about 20 km to the north.
Singapore-headquartered Equis is developing the 200 MW / 800 MWh Lower Wonga battery system nearby and to the west are the 453 MW Coopers Gap and proposed 436 MW Tarong West wind farms.
The largest of the projects planned for the region is the 2 GW / 48 GWh Borumba pumped hydro venture being developed near Imbil, about 45 minutes southwest of Gympie. Once operational, the Queensland government-backed project will be capable of dispatching 2,000 MW and storing up to 24 hours of energy with the capacity to supply electricity for up to 2.3 million Queensland homes.
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