MacIntyre Wind Farm Exports Power!

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Queensland is understood in Australia because the Sunshine State, and rightly so. Right now, on a Sunday afternoon, the state is producing about 50% of its electrical energy from sunshine — pure yellow stuff. The place it has fallen down within the renewable transition is using its huge land space to put in wind farms and produce electrical energy when the solar isn’t shining. It’s at the moment producing solely 129 MW from this useful resource. That’s about to vary.

CleanTechnica readers have listened to me lament over time that there’s not enough wind feeding power into Australia’s grid. They might have adopted the event of the MacIntyre Wind Precinct impatiently ready for the promise of energy from the air. That point has come.

One reader even known as Queensland a shame within the wind energy world, quoting figures at the moment (2 years in the past) — 4GW put in in Victoria, 2.3 GW in South Australia, 2.2 GW in New South Wales, and 675 MW in Queensland — solely 100 MW greater than Tasmania. “Queensland is an absolute disgrace in wind power.”

The excellent news is that state of affairs has now modified dramatically. A recent announcement from owner and operator Acciona Energia informs us that the MacIntyre Wind Farm has commenced producing clear, inexperienced electrical energy and feeding into the Queensland and nationwide grid. MacIntyre, at 923 megawatts, is the biggest working wind farm within the Southern Hemisphere.

Twenty-seven of the anticipated complete 162 generators have been related to the power grid. Vitality exports to the grid will progressively ramp up all through quarter 4 of 2024, and the farm can be totally operational by the third quarter of 2025. The MacIntyre Wind Farm is a part of the larger MacIntyre Wind Precinct, comprising the MacIntyre Wind Farm and the proposed Herries Vary Wind Farm (1 GW capability from 180 generators), which is in late-stage growth. It’s positioned in southwestern Queensland, not removed from the historic city of Warwick on the Darling Downs.

Acciona established its social licence early within the growth and prevented the neighborhood backlash that arose when a photo voltaic farm was constructed nearer to the city. Robust financial ties have been established with native communities. In addition they short-circuited a number of the arguments in opposition to farming land getting used for power manufacturing by persevering with to make use of the land as a working sheep farm. No sheep have been harmed within the constructing and operation of MacIntyre.

The MacIntyre Wind Farm is hosted by landowners unfold throughout its 36,000 hectares (about 90,000 acres). These farms are stocked with sheep, goats, and a few cattle. The co-location with wind generators has brought about no harmful effects and is proving to be successful. Not solely that, however these farmers concerned see it as a monetary lifeline.

“Income diversification is critical for long-term survival in Australian agriculture,” Brent Finlay, as soon as president of the Nationwide Farmers’ Federation, says. “What we hear in the predictions are larger droughts, longer droughts, deeper droughts into the future.”

In line with The Guardian“The deal struck by the group of landowners and the windfarm’s developer, Spanish renewable energy giant Acciona, is confidential, but lobby group Farmers for Climate Action has said annual payments to farmers average $40,000 a turbine. That estimate would put total compensation, shared between the 10 landowners, at $162m over the project’s 25-year lease agreement. It is a potentially significant additional income alongside earnings from their wool and meat operations that can coexist with turbines humming overhead.”

Though farmers internet hosting the wind generators and native companies are overwhelmingly optimistic in regards to the large mission, some on neighbouring farms should not. There’s concern a couple of discount in land values because of the truth that although they’re 5 km away, they’ll nonetheless see the generators from their home block. It’s a worry of the unknown. To this point, these penalties haven’t materialised.

Acciona Energia Managing Director Brett Wickham introduced the next: “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. 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.”

The finished precinct is anticipated to supply roughly 2 GW of renewable power — sufficient to energy the equal of greater than one million houses. The output from all sources of power manufacturing for Queensland stands at 8 GW. It is a large enchancment on what’s at the moment obtainable and a sign of the place Australia’s power market goes regardless of the protestations and deceptive feedback of conservative politicians who’re attempting to advertise nuclear energy. Though it looks as if now we have been ready a very long time for this wind farm to grow to be operational, it’s a lot sooner than constructing a nuclear energy station.

One other batch of 27 generators needs to be exporting energy by this Christmas. No lump of coal from Santa this yr, simply energy from the wind. The MacIntyre Wind Farm is a joint-venture between Acciona Energia and Ark Vitality, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc.

“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. Sun Metals aims to be the world’s first producer of green zinc. It was the first major refiner to sign up to the RE100 initiative and has committed to powering its operations from 100% renewable sources by 2040. Generation from MacIntyre Wind Farm is an exciting milestone for Ark Energy and Sun Metals. It will help to further decarbonise the Sun Metals refinery and achieve a real step-change in progress towards its RE100 commitment,” mentioned Ark Vitality CEO Michael Choi.  Australia is the third largest zinc exporter on the earth.

“Decarbonising industry and producing green metals will also put Sun Metals, and Queensland and Australia’s metal exports, at a significant competitive advantage internationally.”

Solar Metals is the second largest single-site client of electrical energy in Queensland. Its concentrate on being each environmentally accountable and aggressive has led to its goal “to become the first refinery in the world to produce green zinc. By use of the term ‘green zinc’ we mean made entirely from renewable energy. The company is committed to power its entire operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2040, with an interim target of 80% by 2030.” The MacIntyre Wind Farm is a step ahead in assembly these targets.

Different business prospects for MacIntyre’s wind power embody the Queensland government-owned enterprises Stanwell Company and CleanCo. They’re anticipated to make use of 550 MW. This may movement by the grid to assist decarbonise infrastructure, sources, retail, and transport.

“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,’’ Mr Wickham said. “Helping large industrial and commercial energy users to decarbonise supports these important industries to stay in Australia.”

Throughout its building, the MacIntyre Wind Farm mission procured greater than $680 million in labour, providers, and supplies. Greater than 4 million work hours have been accomplished on the mission to date. Greater than 1,000 individuals labored on the mission on its busiest day. Locals from the Darling Downs area comprised over a 3rd of the workforce. On a median day, between 400–450 individuals have been concerned within the building.

“The construction of the MacIntyre Wind Farm has created significant economic activity across Queensland, creating jobs and procurement opportunities for large and small businesses alike,” Mr Wickham mentioned. “From concreters to caterers, now we have sourced greater than $115 million in work and providers from greater than 80 companies in and across the Darling Downs area and employed tons of of native employees.’’ When totally operational, the mission will make use of between 35–40 individuals on website.

On the Darling Downs, the longer term seems vibrant, electrical and windy!