The Queensland Government has approved a State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) application for Tarong West Wind Farm, which is set to become Australia’s largest publicly owned wind farm.
State-owned Stanwell is working with global renewable energy developer RES to build the proposed 436.5MW wind farm 30km south-west of Kingaroy.
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The project will feature 97 wind turbines and produce enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 230,000 homes.
The SARA assessment considered an accommodation strategy for workers to ensure housing supply in the region will not be adversely affected.
SARA has worked closely with the Department of Resources to ensure that the development helps protect important areas of ecological significance including protecting up to 13.47ha of koala habitat.
Conditions have been imposed for offsetting impacts for up to 5.4ha of Koala habitat in addition to requirements to rehabilitate areas cleared during construction, to the greatest extent possible.
Construction is expected to commence from 2025.
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Stanwell CEO Michael O’Rourke said, “The Tarong West Wind Farm is a critical part of not only Stanwell’s plan to decarbonise our existing portfolio, but it’s critical to Queensland reaching its renewable energy targets.
“This development approval brings us one step closer to our aim of having 9-10GW of large-scale wind and solar capacity by 2035 and we are continuing to work with RES through the approval processes so we can bring this project to life.”
