UPC inks land deal for up to 1-GW Tasmania wind park

Wind turbines in Tasmania. Author: Ian Cochrane. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic.

UPC Renewables on Thursday announced an agreement with landowners in the Australian island state of Tasmania for the construction of a wind farm complex of 600 MW to 1,000 MW.

The project will require an investment of between AUD 1.2 billion (USD 906m/EUR 807m) and AUD 1.6 billion. It envisages the construction of the Robbins Island and Jims Plain wind parks on land of local cattle enterprises.

With these projects, in which it will partner with the Hammond Family, UPC is entering the Australian market. It will operate there through UPC Renewables Australia Pty Ltd.

According to the developer, the bigger wind farm on Robbins Island is expected to be ready for investment by the first months of 2019. The other project will be investment-ready by the middle of next year.

UPC Renewables is also considering installing solar and energy storage facilities at the site of the wind farms.

Investigations into the feasibility of a large wind project on the west side of Robbins Island and Jims Plain have been initiated nearly 16 years ago and there are over 12 years of wind data, environmental studies and financial modelling available. A previous plan to make a development proposal has been deferred due to the lack of power transmission capacity and unstable government policy.

Now things have changed. "Once built, [the project] will complement the Prime Minister’s recently announced strategy for Tasmanian Wind and Hydro systems to act as south-east Australia’s renewable energy battery and is close to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s proposed entry point for a second interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria," said UPC Australia CEO Anton Rohner.

Earlier this week, Goldwind Australia reached an in-principle agreement with state government-owned electricity retailer Aurora Energy to build a 144-MW wind park in Tasmania, seen to increase the island’s wind generation capacity by almost 50%.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.755/EUR 0.673)

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