The first wind turbine for a world-first utility-scale, on-grid wind, solar and battery storage project has been installed at the Kennedy energy hub in north Queensland.
The Kennedy energy hub will comprise 40MW of wind, 20MW of solar, and 2MW/4MWh of battery storage, although, according to Windlab, it could be expanded to more than 1.2GW, should be the circumstances be right.
The last blade of the first Vestas 3.6MW turbine was installed at the 60.2MW first stage of the Kennedy energy hub, which is being developed by Windlab and Eurus Energy. The last 67m blade was lifted into place into place by a 750-tonne lattice boom mobile crane, which lifted it to the 132m-high hub.
“This is great achievement and significant milestone for Kennedy,” said Peter Cowling, country head of Vestas Australia and New Zealand.
“We are now one-step closer to completing this revolutionary project, which has the potential to leverage Australia’s abundant renewable energy resources, while ensuring a consistent and reliable electricity supply.”
A consortium between Vestas and Quanta Solar is delivering the construction and engineering. The solar panels and Tesla batteries are currently being installed and the sub-station is also being upgraded.
“We are pleased that another major milestone had been reached in the project,” said Roger Price, Windlab CEO.
“With this project, we are generating significant local employment and leading the nation in the deployment of innovative and reliable renewable energy, capable of closely matching electricity network demand.”