Wind farm to spin up jobs, power

RURAL stakeholders have thrown their weight behind the Mt Emerald Wind Farm as it enters its testing phase.

The 180MW Mount Emerald project near Mareeba is Queensland’s largest wind farm.

Ratch’s EGM business development manager Anthony Yeates said getting the first of the wind turbine blades turning was a landmark step for the project.

“It’s a very important milestone and is the culmination of lot of work by a lot of people over a very long period of time,” Mr Yeates said.

The Atherton Tableland and Mareeba chambers of commerce have supported the project as a source of renewable energy and jobs in the region.

“There were a lot of benefits over the last year,” said the Mareeba chamber’s Sam Musumeci.

“You can see it in the town — it brought in business and there was a lot of local employment.

“There are still a half dozen or so jobs and potential for further development.”

Tableland chamber chairwoman Christine Doan said the wind farm would help build a “resilient Tableland.”

“We want to see sustain- ability and investment,” Ms Doan said. “We want the Tableland taking advantage of its resources without ruining them.”

Canegrowers’ Bronwyn Dwyer said the farm held potential for possible peer-topeer power trading.

“But that’s not yet,” she said.

The wind farm will deliver about 530,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy, which is predicted to meet the annual needs of about 75,000 north Queensland homes over at least a 20-year period.

Of the 3500MW of wind generation capacity currently in Australia, Queensland currently only supplies around 12MW. available

WE WANT THE TABLELAND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ITS RESOURCES WITHOUT RUINING THEM

editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost