ENGIE Australia & New Zealand today announced the purchase of the up to 420 MW Hills of Gold Wind Farm development near Nundle in New South Wales.
ENGIE ANZ will be responsible for developing and operating the $750 million facility, having completed the acquisition of the project entity, from Wind Energy Partners Pty Ltd. The project is going through development approvals and construction is expected to start in early 2022.
ENGIE ANZ’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Augustin Honorat, said purchasing the Hills of Gold Wind Farm was consistent with ENGIE’s strategy of accelerating the development of renewable energy projects in Australia.
“We have a pipeline of wind and large-scale solar developments in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland that we are aiming to develop as soon as possible to meet the growing demand for affordable, green energy.
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity of building the Hills of Gold Wind Farm and to working with the local community to unlock the benefits of renewable energy development.”
ENGIE Asia Pacific President and Regional Chief Executive Officer, Paul Maguire added:
“The addition of the Hills of Gold Wind Farm is the latest demonstration of ENGIE’s long-term commitment to Australia. This investment significantly increases our local generation capacity to deliver more renewable energy to our growing customer base in this state.”
“Economies around the world need to adopt more sustainable ways of living and working, and companies like ENGIE need to facilitate and support initiatives that achieve this outcome. We consider this investment marks another clear milestone for ENGIE in supporting the journey towards carbon neutrality.”
Key project statistics:
- More than 215 direct jobs and about 430 indirect jobs expected during construction phase, commencing in early 2022.
- About 30 permanent jobs and 50 indirect jobs when operational, including opportunities to develop new skills in the region within the growing renewable energy industry
- Up to 70 wind turbines, each with a generating capacity of up to 6 MW per unit.
- A 33 kV/330 kV onsite substation connecting to the existing 330 kV TransGrid Liddell to Tamworth overhead transmission line network via a dedicated transmission line from the wind farm
- $370 million of economic activity during construction.
Source: https://engie.com.au/