Resource Industry Network begins capability study for Capricornia Energy Hub

There’s a swell of renewable energy dollars on offer to Mackay businesses with the right capabilities amid plans for a multibillion-dollar project. DETAILS.

Resource Industry Network general manager Dean Kirkwood. Picture: Contributed

Mackay business is in prime position to prosper through the region’s energy infrastructure boom with a new local capability study now underway for a $6.5b wind, solar and pumped hydro project.

The study, led by the Resources Industry Network, will survey hundreds of businesses to assess their capacity to bid for contracts for the Capricornia Energy Hub, a 2000MW renewable energy enterprise backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and CS Energy, a Queensland government owned electricity provider.

The hub, located near Eungella Dam in the Mackay hinterland, consists of three pillars: a 750MW pumped hydro plant and a 500MW wind farm on Eungella Station and then a solar farm further west.

RIN CEO Dean Kirkwood said a detailed supply chain map would flow from the study and give the Capricornia Energy team insight into how Mackay business could be incorporated into the build.

Mapped: The Capricornia Energy Hub and Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme. Source: Capricornia Energy Hub, Queensland Hydro

“It is a broadbrush piece of work,” he said.

“We will be able to give that capability over to them and say, ‘OK, we have XYZ within the region with the capability of being able to work on your projects’.”

It is expected the study will be completed by the end of the year at the latest.

Mackay businesses are already securing contracts in a rising renewables push.

Twin Hills Engineering, based at Alligator Creek, has begun geotechnical drilling work on the mammoth Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme in the Pioneer Valley, a much larger and more costly system than Capricornia Energy.

A Twin Hills Engineering and Drilling truck at Dalrymple Heights in June 2023. Picture: Contributed

Mr Kirkwood said he supported the planned energy projects and expressed confidence the Capricornia hub would come through.

“I just think they (Capricornia Energy) are probably a bit further down the track, where they are ready to really focus on and look at the capability in the area so that they are starting to look at the local content that they‘ll be looking to use for that project,” he said.

“They have got the private funding up and going, the land agreements are in place, they have got their native title in place.”

If approvals are secured, construction on the hub could begin in 2025 with an estimated three-year construction timeline.

“These projects bring new skills to the region and that’s just another string to our bow, it allows us to grow businesses and to really mature the region in terms of creating new industries,” Mr Kirkwood said.

Originally published as Resource Industry Network begins capability study for Capricornia Energy Hub