WA renewable energy project gets green light

The project, with up to up to 1743 turbines and 660,000 hectares of solar panels, sits near a vital migratory bird habitat.

Up to 1743 wind turbines will be built as part of the WA wind and solar project.

An enormous wind and solar project that will sit on the doorstep of one of the world’s most important migratory bird habitats has been approved by Western Australia’s environmental regulator.

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub – a $22 billion-plus proposal that will dwarf every other renewable energy project in the country – was given the all-clear by WA’s Environmental Protection Authority on Monday.

The development will feature up to 1743 wind turbines, each up to 260m tall, and solar panels across more than 660,000 hectares of the Pilbara region. Energy from the project will be exported along underwater cables to Indonesia and potentially Singapore.

The EPA found the development would sit a suitable distance from the Ramsar-listed Eighty Mile Beach and nearby Mandora Salt Marsh. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds – including the Great Knot, which flies from Siberia – arrive in the area each year to feast on invertebrates in the mudflats.

“The wind turbines are 26 kilometres away from Eighty Mile Beach and 13 kilometres from Mandora Marsh. Given the large distances from these important Ramsar wetlands, the EPA considers any potential impacts to migratory birds are manageable,” the EPA said in a statement.

The individual wind turbines will sit 800m apart from each other in dozens of rows. Each row will be 4km away from the next.

The massive project is expected to employ around 3000 workers over its 10-year construction period.

The owners say the project will be capable of generating up to 15,000 megawatts of wind and solar energy, which is more than 2½ times the total combined renewable energy capacity installed in Australia in the past three years.

The development is being pushed by Intercontinental Energy, Vestas and CEP Energy Asia. Australia’s Macquarie Group joined the project consortium in October 2018

The proponents currently plan to make a final investment decision on the project by 2025.

The project initially involved plans to send electricity to Indonesia and Singapore via an undersea high voltage cable, but CWP business development manager Andrew Dickson told The Australian the project was now more likely to export energy by using the electricity to make hydrogen.