400 jobs from new wind farm

ALMOST 400 construction jobs are on offer in regional Queensland to build the southern-hemisphere’s biggest wind farm.

In a rare piece of good news on the employment front, Spanish-owned infrastructure giant ACCIONA, who was part of the Nexus Infrastructure

consortium that built the Toowoomba Bypass, is on a search for hundreds of workers to build the $1.9 billion MacIntyre wind farm 50km south of Warwick.

“It’s pretty bad news out there (because of coronavirus) so it will be good to have a nice big construction project ready to go once we come out of this,” said ACCIONA Energy Australia managing director

Brett Wickham.

He said a website had been set up where interested contractors could register their interest in work and a series of community meetings had been held.

He said plant and equipment operators, electricians and steel workers would among the people sought during the construction phase which would start early next year.

“We will be looking at employing local people and contractors initially and then looking further afield,” said Mr Wickham, who said about 20 full-time maintenance and operational staff would be required once the project was completed.

ACCIONA will establish a community enhancement program to channel financial assistance to community groups and local schools as part of the project. A community scholarship program will provide financial support for college and TAFE students.

He said the wind farm site was first identified by the company a decade ago and once completed will feature 1700 turbines across 17,000 hectares. The site would complement other renewable energy sources, particularly solar, because it had wind flow at night.

The farm will produce enough electricity to power 700,000 homes. ACCIONA has reached an agreement with CleanCo, the Queensland Government’s newest renewable energy generator, for it to become the independent owner and operator of the wind farm.