Construction nears on $1.5bn Clarke Creek renewable energy project QLD

Construction nears on the $1.5 billion Clarke Creek Integrated Wind, Solar and Battery Power Station - located approximately 150 kilometres north west of Rockhampton, Queensland - with the necessary State and Federal Government approvals already granted.

This integrated renewable energy project is being developed by Lacour Energy together with its partner, Goldwind Australia, who will be supplying the wind turbines.

“The project has now received Federal Government approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act). Earlier this year, the wind farm project received Queensland Government planning approval for up to 195 wind turbines and approval was earlier secured for a 400MW solar farm and a large utility scale battery.

“The combination of wind, solar and battery represents a very large-scale integrated renewables power station located at one of the strongest locations of the Queensland power system - no grid extension is required. Importantly, the wind resource in night biased, complementing daytime solar production,” Lacour Energy Director Mark Rayner said.

Project location (source: Clarke Creek Wind and Solar)

According to Goldwind Australia’s Managing Director John Titchen, the company will be focusing on local business participation as well as local employment for this project - the same as all the company’s projects. The company plans to launch a Clarke Creek Local Business Participation Program for this.

“This program will be a key initiative to identify capability and capacity in the local community and maximise opportunities for local subcontractors and suppliers to participate in the project. This program has proven successful for projects currently under construction in Victoria, new South Wales and Tasmania,” Mr Titchen said.

Goldwind Australia is now currently seeking for expressions of interest for the Balance of Plant tender, which will cover full civil and electrical works for the project.

Approximately 350 jobs are expected to be generated during the construction of Clarke Creek Wind Farm and up to 25 permanent jobs once it is operational.

Once the wind farm has completed construction, it will be able to generate enough renewable energy to power up to 590,000 local homes as well as supply about 4 per cent of the State’s electricity, contributing a large amount of green power to achieve the Queensland Renewable Energy Target.

Construction on the project is anticipated to commence in 2019.

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Source: Renew Economy; Goldwind Australia; Clarke Creek Wind and Solar