Hughenden powers up
A “FREAK of nature” is set to make a small northwest Queensland town the epicentre of Australia’s renewable energy boom with the first grid- connected baseload wind, solar and battery project.
That freak of nature — as described by Hughenden-based Flinders Shire Mayor Jane McNamara — is an unusual combination of wind and solar resources. Together, they will provide “near baseload power”, Kennedy Energy Park proponents say.
“Hughenden, or that area west of the ( Great) Divide, is quite unique,” Kennedy Energy Park project director Geoff Burns said.
“We all know it has a great solar resource but it also has a fantastic wind resource. The best part of that is when the sun goes down in the evening, the wind picks up. It blows throughout the night before dropping in the morning when the sun comes up again.”
The Australian renewable energy developer, owner and asset manager has teamed with Japan’s Eurus Energy, owned by Toyota and Tokyo Electric Power Co, to develop Kennedy.
Work is expected to start within weeks and already about 50 people are employed at Hughenden on another pro- ject, the 20MW Hughenden Solar Farm being developed by infrastructure fund Lighthouse Solar.
Cr McNamara said the combination of sun and wind on the plateau of the Great Dividing Range was an amazing freak of nature.
“Right across northwest Queensland, it’s ideal for solar power,” she said.
“We have so much land we don’t need to be worrying where they are. The Windlab one is an interesting one because the data is showing what is an amazing freak of nature where we have the atmospheric phenomenon of wind on these plateaus. It’s going to be a very good story to tell.”
Mr Burns told a Townsville Industry Breakfast this week financial closure on their 150MW first stage project was expected to occur within a few weeks with construction to follow.
“Based on the learnings from this first stage, Windlab will be looking to invest $ 1 billion in a second stage,” Mr Burns said.
“Kennedy is going to be Australia’s first grid- connected wind, solar and storage project.
“We will be demonstrating that with the two resources and a small amount of battery storage, you can get near baseload power.
“The way that Queensland is going with the amount of solar that is going in, it does need that wind to offset it, otherwise you are going to end up with a heap of power during the day, and probably excess power to what the demand is, particularly in North Queensland.”
Windlab has approved a joint venture between Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems and US infrastructure group Quanta Services to engineer, procure and construct the project.
“We are looking at around a gigawatt of energy that, with the ( State Government’s) Powering North Queensland ( transmission) plan, will kick off a huge investment boom through that area from Hughenden north,” Mr Burns said.
“There will be a lot of opportunities for local businesses with labour supply. Skilled and unskilled labour will be required.”
Services required included construction, bulk materials handling, earth moving, specialist transport, crane hire, solar installation, substation and electricity work.
Kennedy MP Bob Katter, while arguing for maintenance of existing coal- fired power, described Kennedy Energy Park, Genex’s Kidston solar and pumped hydro project and the Hells Gate dam proposal as the “Triangle of Power”.
“The triangle of power will generate all of North Queensland’s electricity requirements at a reasonable price and zero emissions,” Mr Katter said.