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Wind farms in Queensland: a page of Wind in the BushInformation about wind farms that I have missed, additional interesting information, or corrections for anything that I have got wrong, would be greatly appreciated; please give evidence. About these pages Contact: email daveclarkecb@yahoo.com |
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At the end of 20011 there was only 12MW of operating wind power in Queensland, by far the least of any Australian state; and there were no wind farms under construction.
I will be pleased to hear from any reader who believes that anything in any
of these pages is incorrect or substantially incomplete.
Please send details, with appropriate references, to the email address
above.
Any suggestions on how these pages can be more informative will also be
appreciated.
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This project is proposed by a consortium of IFE Engineering and
Wind Power, Queensland (WPQ).
WPQ's managing director,
Lloyd Stumer, said that it is the best place in Queensland for a wind farm.
It is intended to be built on a 2300ha site about 15km south of Cooktown.
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| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Proposed | 40 | 2 | 80 | Unknown | Approx. S 15.58° | E 145.31° |
| Lloyd Stumer has told me (email, 2010/12/16) that WPQ has always been fully aware of the need for a significant grid upgrade and the need for a barge landing facility (not a port) to get the turbines in place. WPQ has been in discussions with all the relevant stakeholders (including all Government departments) for many years concerning these requirements. |
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| This project is proposed by Ratch Australia Corp. and Port Bajool Pty Ltd. (Ratch is 80% owned by Thai power company and 20% owned by Transfield Services.) If it goes ahead it will be built near Mareeba, which is 37km WSW of Cairns. (Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund did own Ratch's share of this wind farm, but they were taken over by Ratch Australia Corporation.) Transfield's Net pages on what used to be its wind farms are no more, and Ratch has not yet produced net pages. |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Prefeasibility | 75 | 2 to 3 | 130 | Unknown | Approx. S 16.99° | E 145.41° |
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I am informed that the Arriga site is "ideal ... with a long unobstructed
fetch and constant winds" and that it is on private land.
Another informant implied that the site was far from ideal and that
"There are about 80 residents living under 2km from proposed turbines".
AusPoll conducted a survey of community attitudes to the wind farm in March 2012 and found strong support for it and for wind power generally. Contacts for Port Bajool PL are: Wendy Morris, mobile phone 0418 717 280, and John Morris, 0438 988 023. |
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Originally proposed by Investec Bank, this project was aquired by AGL
(who have a Net page on
the project) in December 2008.
If built, it will be on a 12 000ha site about 180km north-west of Brisbane near Cooranga North, between Dalby and Kingaroy. A map is available from AGL's Web site. A newsletter that AGL released in March 2011 stated that the project was currently at stage two (first public submission period) of a six-stage Community Infrastructure Designation process; it also said that an Initial Assessment Report was available from the Net site. |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Proposed | 115 | 2 to 4 | Approx. 350 | Unknown | Approx. S -26.74° | E 151.39° |
| The ABC on-line news reported that Mayor of Dalby Regional Council said that the landholders would be paid $10 000 per turbine per year. The Queensland Sunday Mail carried an article on 2011/04/03 that gave a figure of "up to $6000 a year per turbine". |
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| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Approved | 75 | 2.1? | 158? | Unknown | Approx. S 27.23° | E 151.96° |
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It was reported by Louise O'Keeffe in
The Chronicle, 2009/01/08,
that "AGL is continuing to develop the project".
Another article in The Chronicle (Stuart Cumming, 2011/02/02) stated that
"although a development application had lapsed, there were plans for it
to be resubmitted".
On 2009/06/18 AGL announced that they had bought the rights "to develop a smaller wind farm in Queensland which would allow AGL to expand its existing wind farm development at Crows Nest near Toowoomba, by 20 turbines. This would increase the potential capacity of Crow's Nest to approximately 200MW".
It is possible that the Transfield development that AGL bought to extend Crows Nest is Crediton or High Road Wind Farm. |
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| Proposed by Infigen this project has been given in-principle support by the local council. The wind farm is proposed to be built on the Sirron Cattle Station between Forsayth and Mt Surprise. There were no objections to the project. (Reported in the Cairns Post on 2012/10/31.) |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Proposed | 25 | 2.5? | 70-80 | Undecided | Approx. S ?° | E ?° |
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It is proposed that the farm will be in the Evelyn area, about 10km north of Ravenshoe and 25km south of Atherton in North Queensland and it is expected to cost around $90 million. On the map the wind farm will be where Evelyn is shown and extend above that on the left side of the Kennedy Highway (brown on the map) and across to the green area.
Transfield Services acquired the High Road Wind Farm from Stanwell Corporation in December 2007. Stanwell Corporation undertook a thorough site suitability assessment to identify a preferred location for the proposed wind farm. The High Road site was chosen because of:
This seems to indicate a serious commitment to the project.
Transfield expect the wind farm to operate for 20 to 30 years and say that
if and when it is decommissioned the site will be returned to its original
land use.
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat | Long |
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| Approved | 17 | 2.2 | 37.4 | Unknown | S 17.48° | E 145.46° |
On 2012/02/08 I received the following from someone who wishes not to be named:
"In the current layout, the wind farm is unable to comply with Queensland noise legislation and the development is at a stalemate (the developer attempting to negotiate more lenient noise conditions and the Council unable to comply for obvious legal reasons). It is noted that at least 6 residences are located under 1000m from turbines, with one family (non-host) only 470 metres away from proposed turbines. It's not surprising then that the developer cannot comply."
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"The Northern Australian Clean Energy Corridor proposal is a series of clean energy power generators to be connected by an AC transmission link from Mt Isa to Townsville – to join North West Queensland (NW Qld) to the National Grid"In addition to the wind farm, the project will pick up power from several bio-fuel power stations, "biomass conversion power stations", a hydro and two solar power stations (one of which is combined with bio-fuel). So far as I know, all of these power projects are only proposals at the present. In June 2011 I received information that "Leighton Contractors and CuString said their Copper String project to build a $1.5 billion, 720km high-voltage transmission link between Townsville and Mount Isa now has initial agreements with energy users, which are believed to include Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata, owner of Mount Isa Mines." The Copper String project has since been scrapped (information May 2012). |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Construction date | Lat. | Long. |
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| Proposed | Up to 300 | 2.1 to 3? | Up to 750 | Late 2012 | Approx. S 20.87° | E 144.21° |
| Present land use | Predominantly grazing |
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| Local Government district | Flinders Shire |
| Area | About 280 square kilometres |
| Project cost | Over Aus$1.5b |
| Greenhouse gas abatement expected | 1.9 million tonnes annually |
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My thanks to Geoff Henderson for allerting me to this proposal.
The proposed Eyre Peninsula wind project in SA will similarly link a number of renewable resource areas with the national power grid. |
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On some maps it will be named Prince of Wales Island. |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Commissioned | Lat. | Long. |
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| Operating | 2 | 0.225 | 0.450 | 1997 | S 10.58° | E 142.22° |
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This wind farm is near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands.
Previously owned by Stanwell Corporation, then Transfield Infrastructure
Fund; it is now owned by Ratch Australia Corp.
(Ratch is 80% owned by Thai power company and 20% owned by Transfield
Services.)
On 2012/08/02 Tony Stickey wrote an article in the Cairns Post stating the the wind farm operator was facing legal action over noise and might have to close down three turbines overnight. The net pages on TIF and Transfield's page on Windy Hill Wind Farm are no more. |
| Status | # Turbines | MW each | Total MW | Commissioned | Lat. | Long. |
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| Operating | 20 | 0.6 | 12 | 2000 | S 17.59° | E 145.53° |
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From PowerCorp, who designed and constructed the wind farm
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In addition to the wind farms detailed above many others have been proposed
(table below).
If and when any of these proposed wind farms look likely to be built, and as I get more information, I will write them up in more detail. If any readers have information concerning these I would appreciate a note, my email address is at the top of this page. Until a wind farm gets at least to the point where an application for approval has been submitted to the relevant authority it may be little more than wishfull thinking and is not worth covering in more detail than that below. |
Wind farms that have been proposed in QueenslandIn alphabetical order | ||||
| Project name | Sponsoring Company | Capacity, MW | Status | |
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| Bowen | Ratch-Australia Corporation | ? | ? | |
| Coconut Island | Ergon Energy | 0.01 | Decommisioned | |
| Coowonga | Earth Energy | 0.02 | Feasibility | |
| Crediton | Ratch-Australia Corporation | 30 | Proposed | |
| North Stradbroke Island | Stanwell or Transfield? | 15 | Proposed | |
| Rock Road (south of Atherton) | DP Energy (Ireland) | ? | Feasibility | |
| Tolga (7km north of Atherton) | Tolga Wind Farm | 40-50 | Feasibility | |
| Windy Hill stage 2 | Ratch-Australia Corporation | ? | Proposed | |
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Home Wind home On this page... Arriga Wind Farm Archer Point Wind Farm Bowen Wind Farm Coconut Island Wind Farm Contents Cooktown Wind Farm Coopers Gap Wind Farm Coowonga Wind Farm Crediton Wind Farm Crows Nest Wind Farm Dalby Wind Farm Forsayth Wind Farm High Road Wind Farm Hughenden Wind Farm Kennedy Wind Farm Mareeba Wind Farm Mount Emerald Wind Farm North Stradbroke Island Wind Farm Other proposed wind farms Thursday Island Wind Farm Top Windy Hill Wind Farm |
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