Renewable Energy Partners proposes $800m wind farm for South East Qld
The chief executive of a growing renewable energy company says the proposed location for a new 300MW wind farm “ticks all the boxes”.   :)


News.com.au
April 4, 2024

A burgeoning renewable energy company is hoping to expand its green power footprint in Queensland with a new $800m wind farm.   :)

Renewable Energy Partners, which boasts a sweep of wind, solar and pumped hydro developments across the state, wants to implant a further 48 wind turbines in a 300MW farm about 230km west of Brisbane.

If approved, the farm could power up to 180,000 homes, the company states, and help the state government achieve its ambitious target to hit 70 per cent renewable power generation by 2032.   :)

The Merrawindi wind farm would be located adjacent to the coal-fired Millmerran power plant near Toowoomba and the company said the site was chosen for its “excellent wind resource, proximity to Powerlink’s high-voltage transmission network, strong local community support and the availability of a local, highly skilled workforce”.

“We think it’s a great project and we just now have to go through the usual development steps,” REP chief executive Luke McDonald told NCA NewsWire on Thursday.

Renewable Energy Partners chief executive Luke McDonald said the project ‘ticks all the boxes’.


“In our view, it ticks all the boxes of the aspects you’re looking for in developing a project through to construction.”

The company has begun internal environmental assessments but has not submitted any applications to the state or federal governments.

Mr McDonald said he expected to lodge applications for the farm in mid 2025 with a target operational date of 2028.


“Queensland is a fantastic place to develop renewable energy projects, given the strong support of the Queensland government through its Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan under the leadership of (Energy) Minister De Brenni,” he said in a release announcing Merrawindi.

“As a proud Queensland-based company, REP is excited to be playing its part in the energy transition here in Queensland”.

The government is spending $62bn to reconfigure the state’s energy system and move it onto a renewables base.

The proposed Merrawindi wind farm will be located adjacent to the Millmerran Power Station in the Toowoomba region of South East Queensland.

Mr de Brenni, speaking with business leaders in Mackay in 2022 following the release of the plan, said the shift would help businesses inoculate themselves from global price shocks while also addressing climate change concerns.

“(The plan will) Decouple our state, the businesses, those big electricity users, from those global price shocks. We need to move to a fuel system that is based on fuel that Queenslanders own and one that is low emissions as well,” he said.

Alongside Merrawindi, REP is pursuing wind farms in Proserpine in North Queensland and in the Tarong and Wandoan areas of the southeast.

It is also developing a $6.5bn energy project west of Mackay called the Capricornia Energy Hub.

The hub, which is backed by global clean energy investment fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, would implant a 750MW pumped hydro plant, a 500MW wind farm and a solar farm.

Mr McDonald said geotechnical work had begun on the pumped hydro component’s lower reservoir.

Hmmm.....


Quote:

Queensland is a fantastic place to develop renewable energy projects, given the strong support of the Queensland government through its Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan...  As a proud Queensland-based company, REP is excited to be playing its part in the energy transition here in Queensland...  The government is spending $62bn to reconfigure the state’s energy system and move it onto a renewables base.

   And in other news...

"One of Australia's largest proposed coal mines has been given
environmental approval by the Queensland government.

Whitehaven Coal's Winchester South coal mine in central Queensland
plans to extract up to 17 million tonnes of coal a year for 30 years.

The open-cut mine, 30km south-east of Moranbah, would produce mostly
metallurgical coal, used to make steel, with secondary thermal coal for
energy generation. 

Environmental groups have slammed the decision, with concern
over the emissions the mine will produce, given its size".

—ABC Australia, 7 February 2024.

Another plan to destroy the environment based on ideology instead of science.   ::)

The flaw of ideot... er, I mean ideology is that it is strict 'mental' existence, not connected to any 'physical' interpretation.

Think of a 'brain' in a jar, not connected to any physical 'body' (senses) and coming up with all these hair-brained ideas.

Because you're not getting the 'full monty' of those bodily senses to interpret from as well - the mental capacity of ideology is deeply flawed like a head on a stick.

In battle, the ideologists always ended up with their decapitated heads skewered on the end of pikes or spears at the end of battle. Too smart for their own good.

Ideology always has a physical weakness about it.