Clarke Creek Wind Farm now has state and national planning approvals after receiving approval under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act from the Federal Government. With the approval, construction is set to commence in 2019.
Director of Lacour Energy, which has partnered with Goldwind to deliver the Clark Creek integrated wind, solar and battery project, Mark Rayner said earlier this year, the wind farm project received Queensland Government planning approval for up to 195 wind turbines and approval was earlier secured for a 400 MW solar farm and a large utility scale battery.
“The combination of wind, solar and battery represents a very large-scale integrated renewables power station located at one of the strongest locations of the Queensland power system – no grid extension is required,” Mr Rayner said.
“Importantly, the wind resource is night biased, complementing daytime solar production.
“The project economies of scale drive a competitive cost of electricity, support investment and economic development in regional Queensland and will make a significant contribution to the Queensland Renewable Energy Target.”
With a generation capacity of 800 MW, the wind farm component of the project is set to be the biggest wind farm in Australia.
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Goldwind Australia managing director John Titchen said Goldwind is now seeking expressions of interest for the Balance of Plant tender process for the full civil and electrical works for the wind farm, and the Clarke Creek Local Business Participation Program will be soon launched.
“This program will be a key initiative to identify capability and capacity in the local community and maximise opportunities for local subcontractors and suppliers to participate in the project,” Mr Titchen said.
“This program has proven successful for projects currently under construction in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
“The Lacour Energy team have done excellent work identifying and developing this project. Wind conditions have been measured and shown to match very well with Goldwind’s latest advanced wind turbine technology.
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“As is expected in this region, the solar resource has also proven to be very high quality.”
The project, located 150km Northwest of Rockhampton, will have a construction cost totalling over $1.5 billion, with up to 350 jobs expected on site during construction of the wind farm and up to 25 permanent staff during operations.
Once operational, the wind farm production will be enough to power around 590,000 Queensland homes, supplying around four per cent of Queensland’s electricity, and making a large contribution to the achievement of the Queensland Renewable Energy Target.
