Construction officially starts on the largest wind farm in Australia

Construction has started on the 1,026-megawatt (MW) MacIntyre Wind Precinct, the largest wind farm to ever be built in Australia. It’s also one of the largest wind farms in the southern hemisphere.

Largest wind farm in Australia

Spanish global renewable energy company Acciona Energía and state-owned enterprise CleanCo Queensland are co-owners of the AUD $2 billion (US $1.45 billion) project in Queensland, southwest of Warwick. Queensland-based Ark Energy is a co-investor.

As the tweet below states, the MacIntyre Wind Precinct will generate 1 GW of clean energy annually, which is enough to power 700,000 households.

The MacIntyre Wind Precinct consists of two wind farms and 180 turbines. The 18-turbine Karara Wind Farm is owned by CleanCo (102.6 MW), and the 162-turbine MacIntyre Wind Farm is owned by Acciona Energía (923.4 MW).

Hamburg, Germany-based Nordex is supplying Delta 4000-N163/5.7 wind turbines:

ACCIONA Energía managing director Brett Wickham notes:

MacIntyre is the largest project Acciona Energía has undertaken anywhere in the world and will be our flagship development for many years to come.

The MacIntyre Wind Precinct will create more than 450 direct construction jobs and an additional 220 jobs to build the transmission infrastructure. Once it’s live, it will directly employ 15 staff to maintain the site.

The MacIntyre Wind Precinct is expected to come online in 2024. It’s supporting the Queensland Government’s aim for 50% of its energy needs to come from renewable sources by 2030.

Following the May election in Australia, new prime minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party said he would take the country in a new direction, with a big shift toward addressing the climate crisis. He told the BBC:

Australian businesses know that good action on climate change is good for jobs and good for our economy, and I want to join the global effort.

Read more: Why Australia’s largest coal-fired plant will close seven years early

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