Far North Queensland (FNQ) will be home to a new $200 million wind farm project that will generate power enough to supply over 50,000 homes once it is operational.
Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said that the approved Lakeland Wind Farm is going to bring significant investment to FNQ. Mr Dick added that this project is expected to generate approximately 200 jobs during its construction phase.
“The proposed development by Windlab Limited involves 30 wind turbines and ancillary infrastructure and will take almost a year to construct.
“The farm will produce around 100 megawatts of power for North Queensland, connected via the national electricity grid,” Mr Dick said.
The Minister also said that Windlab has been working closely with his department as well as the local community in order to ensure that the potential impacts of the project will be minimised.
Windlab Chief Executive Officer, Roger Price said: “In securing approval, Windlab worked closely with the department and local community to optimise the project design to accommodate the property development plans of a project neighbour, reducing the number of possible turbine locations to 30 from 35 whilst ensuring that the project remained viable and competitive.”
The multi-million dollar Lakeland Wind Farm is going to be located approximately 60 kilometres south west of Cooktown on the Cape York Peninsula and about 8.5 kilometres north west of Lakeland in Cook Shire.
The development is expected to operate for at least 25 years and will generate enough renewable energy to supply over 50,000 homes.
According to Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham, private sector investments like this wind farm is a concrete endorsement of the State’s renewable energy policy.
“Our 50 per cent renewable energy generation target by 2030 has encouraged an unprecedented level of renewable energy investment in around two dozen large-scale projects that are currently financially committed to or under construction right across the state.
“When completed, these projects will more than double Queensland’s renewable energy output and produce enough electricity to power around 987,000 homes,” Dr Lynham said.
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Source: Queensland Government, Windlab