Aussie court overturns refusal for 70-MW Spanish-Kuwaiti wind project

Global Power Generation, majority-owned by Spanish utility Naturgy Energy Group SA (BME:NTGY), has received the thumbs up to build a wind farm of around 70 MW in Australia’s New South Wales state.

The nod was given by the state’s Land and Environment Court and overturns an earlier decision to reject the project’s planning application. The court’s ruling, issued on Wednesday, grants the developer approval to install up to 16 turbines as part of the third stage of the Crookwell development.

The so-called Crookwell 3 wind farm will be located in the Southern Tablelands, around 100 km north of Canberra. The developer initially sought permission to add 23 turbines of up to 4.2 MW each at the selected site, for a total generation capacity of 96 MW, but decided to trim their number to 17 after receiving feedback from the local community.

New South Wales planning authorities turned down the original proposal on concerns about the visual impact of the development.

Global Power Generation is a joint venture between Naturgy and the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which owns a 25% stake. The duo brought live the 91-MW Crookwell Stage 2 in 2018.

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