Windlab is exploring inventive ways to meet strict environmental conditions at its proposed Bungaban wind farm in Queensland.
This includes positioning a BESS (battery energy storage systems) at each of the project’s 204 wind turbines to “mitigate the need to build standalone BESS infrastructure”, with Windlab required to factor in dozens of ecological communities and threatened and migratory species for development to proceed.
Windlab said co-locating a wind turbine with a BESS would involve “new technologies” and “improve performance and function of the grid connection”.
“If this new technology is utilised, the BESS would be located adjacent to the existing hardstand areas (and) would mitigate the need to build the standalone BESS infrastructure,” the company said in its 852-page draft documentation under the EPBC Act.
“No additional clearing will be required if the BESS is located adjacent to the existing hardstand areas.”
The other option is for BESS to be located within each of the six collector substation compounds at Bungaban, which will be connected to each turbine through medium-voltage (33kV) underground reticulation and overhead transmission lines.
A Powerlink export switchyard would then connect these substations to the National Electricity Market via a proposed 275kV transmission line extending 70km in length.
With 204 turbines, Bungaban is set to span 50,000 hectares. The project is located on rural pastoral properties, with the Barakula State Forest bordering the site to the south and the Warranna State Forest bordering the site to the east.
Windlab is owned through a 75:25 joint venture between Squadron Energy – Andrew Forrest’s renewable energy company – and Federation Asset Management.
Bungaban was determined a controlled action under the EPBC Act in May 2024, with draft documentation open for public comment until March 20 here.
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