New ‘Bogunda Wind Farm’ inks deal for 5GW Hughenden site
Hughenden is set to undergo a transformative change in its landscape, with the announcement of a massive 5GW wind farm capable of powering the entire city of Townsville.
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Hughenden will be getting a whole new landscape of wind turbines after a massive 5GW wind farm was announced for the region – enough to power all of Townsville.
The announcement continues a pattern of renewable energy companies rushing into the region, attracted by Hughenden’s world-class winds, sparse population, and the upcoming CopperString project, which will connect the town to the national grid.
The 5GW project – called Bogunda Wind Farm – will be developed by Renewable Energy Partners (REP) southwest of Hughenden across several stages.
According to REP, the initial stage will be a $2 billion construction blitz to get 2GW of capacity up and plugged into CopperString by 2029.
Hughenden already has a 43MW wind farm at the Kennedy Energy Park, owned by Windlab and Eurus, which is currently the only working wind farm in North Queensland.
There are also working plans for a 1000MW wind farm near Mt James north of Hughenden by the Spanish group Iberdrola.
Both of these projects are dwarfed by the new 5GW Bogunda Wind Farm.
REP chief executive Luke McDonald said Bogunda will be the largest wind farm in the company’s portfolio.
“Hughenden has a phenomenal wind resource, strong local support and benefits from the recent commission of construction of the 500kv CopperString transmission line by Powerlink,” Mr McDonald said.
Bogunda is named after one of the participating properties and means ‘big wind’ in the local Yirandhali language.
GW stands for gigawatt, which is one billion watts of power.
According to the CSIRO, the average Queensland household uses 24.4kWh per day in summer – which means a fully operational Bogunda Wind Farm could power close to 205,000 homes each day.
For context, the 2021 census lists 84,411 ‘households’ in Townsville.
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Originally published as New ‘Bogunda Wind Farm’ inks deal for 5GW Hughenden site
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