Half of Australia's windfarm pipeline is in slowest-building state

Half of Australia's windfarm pipeline is in slowest-building state

Queensland holds half of Australia's proposed onshore wind capacity, but policy and community challenges are making it the slowest state to build the projects.

Queensland has 543 operational wind turbines, which could increase to 1,383 thanks to 17 more projects in the pipeline.

However, community opposition, rising construction costs and government policy changes are making it the slowest state in which to build wind projects.

Experts and industry warn Queensland risks losing billions in private investment without greater certainty.

Most Queenslanders will not see any of the state's 543 wind turbines on their daily commute, despite the towers reaching 247 metres into the air.

You have to drive almost three hours out of Brisbane to rural areas to see one, and there are plenty more in the development pipeline.

Queensland now accounts for half of Australia's proposed onshore wind power capacity, with $5.8 billion worth of projects securing necessary funding or starting construction, according to the Clean Energy Council's latest report.

If all approved projects proceed, the state's installed wind capacity could become about one and a half times more than the existing coal-fired power capacity, state treasury figures show.

But turning that potential investment into turbines is slow going.

Queensland has the longest average onshore wind project completion time of any state, at about three years.

Experts have put this down to multiple factors including community opposition and planning uncertainty.

In brief

Queensland has 543 operational wind turbines, which could increase to 1,383 thanks to 17 more projects in the pipeline. However, community opposition, rising construction costs and government policy changes are making it the slowest state in which to build wind projects. Queensland has the longest average onshore wind project completion time of any state, at about three years.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to ABC News Australia. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at ABC News Australia ↗

Cookie settings

Choose which cookies we may use. You can change this at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. Details of each cookie are in the Cookie Policy.

Strictly necessary

Needed for sign-in, security, payments and remembering these choices. Always on.

Preferences

Remember settings such as dark mode.

Analytics

Help us understand visits and countries – anonymous and aggregated.

Marketing

Used to measure and personalise adverts and social media content.

🔔 News notifications

Get headlines from NewsHub on this device — even when the site is closed.

You can switch this off at any time. Works on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux browsers; on iPhone/iPad add the site to your Home Screen first.