MacIntyre Wind Farm, the largest operating wind farm in Australia and the southern hemisphere, has generated its first renewable energy for the national electricity grid.
The 923MW MacIntyre Wind Farm in south-western Queensland has connected 27 wind turbines to the energy grid, and throughout October the turbines will be delivering their first renewable power across Queensland and Australia.
Global renewable energy developer, owner and operator ACCIONA Energia says the 162-turbine project will almost double the total amount of wind energy generated in Queensland when fully operational at the end of 2025.
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“Today marks a significant milestone for Australia’s diversification of its energy sources with the southern hemisphere’s largest operating wind farm now generating renewable energy,’’ said ACCIONA Energia managing director Brett Wickham.
“When the MacIntyre Wind Farm is fully operational, it will generate enough renewable energy to power more than 600,000 homes and double Queensland’s wind energy generation.”
Over the next 12 months, the remaining turbines at the MacIntyre Wind Farm will be progressively connected, with another batch of 27 turbines planned to be exporting energy by Christmas.
Located in the Southern Downs outside Warwick, the Macintyre Wind Farm is part of the greater MacIntyre Wind Precinct comprising the MacIntyre Wind Farm and the proposed Herries Range Wind Farm which is in late-stage development.
When complete approximately 2GW of renewable energy will be generated from the Precinct—enough to power the equivalent of more than a million homes.
The MacIntyre Wind Farm is a joint-venture between ACCIONA Energia and Ark Energy, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc.
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Ark Energy will use some of the generation from its share in the MacIntyre Wind Farm to support its sister company, Sun Metals Corporation and the Townsville refinery’s decarbonisation plans.
The wind farm will also support other commercial energy users in infrastructure, resources, retail and transport decarbonise their operations through two PPA agreements with Queensland Government owned enterprises Stanwell Corporation and CleanCo totalling 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,” Wickham said.
