{"id":89180,"date":"2025-08-23T04:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/89180\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T04:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:38:10","slug":"giant-wind-project-cuts-turbine-size-and-numbers-as-it-seeks-new-ways-to-join-the-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/89180\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant wind project cuts turbine size and numbers as it seeks new ways to join the grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of a number of giant renewable energy projects stranded in the south west of NSW by the lack of grid capacity has proposed another cut in turbines numbers, and reduced its proposed hub heights as it seeks new avenues to join the grid.<\/p>\n

Engie\u2019s The Plains renewable hub, proposed south of Hay, is one of dozens of projects totalling more than 30 gigawatts of capacity that have been frozen out of the grid by the lack of capacity in the newly created South-West renewable energy zone.<\/p>\n

Only four projects won the rights to connect to the REZ in a recently concluded tender, and three of those projects \u2013 Pottinger, Bullewah and Dinawan \u2013 had to accept a big haircut in capacity. Only Origin Energy\u2019s proposed 1.45 gigawatt (GW) Yanco Delta wind project got the capacity it asked for.<\/p>\n

The Plains started out as a wind, solar and battery hub with a combined capacity of 1.9 GW, but Engie recently withdrew its application for the 400 megawatt (MW) solar component as it rethought the project layout and considered alternatives for grid connection.<\/p>\n

See: Solar project may be moved as Engie rethinks plans for giant energy hub in constrained grid<\/a><\/p>\n

Now Engie has flagged \u2013 through the federal government\u2019s EPBC process \u2013 that it intends to reduce the number of turbines to 171 turbines, and lower the blade tip height to 270 metres \u2013 following consultation with the local community, and with a view to \u201cconstructibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is the second reduction in the last two years. Engie originally proposed 226 turbines with a tip height of 280m and a total wind capacity of 1.8 GW. The turbine numbers were cut to 188 in 2024, and now to 171 \u2013 meaning total capacity is reduced by 570 MW to 1.23 GW.<\/p>\n

Engie\u2019s advisors at ERM say the changes will help protected sensitive areas and \u201creceivers\u201d \u2013 locals who might be impacted by the project, and address issues relating to biodiversity, noise, visual, heritage, hazards and risks, and water.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It has) maximised the yield of wind power generation through suitable positioning of WTGs (wind turbines) on-site and in consideration of environmental constraints,\u201d the notice says.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It has) addressed matters raised in submissions of the exhibited Project EIS and outcomes of ongoing engagement with the community, landowners, government agencies, local council and other stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wind component project received 38 objections \u2013 and 14 supportive submissions \u2013 as it worked through the state planning process. None of the objections came from the local council area \u2013 possibly due to the work of Engie and the local council in providing reliable information about the projects and engaging with the community.<\/p>\n

See our interview with Hay Shire Council\u2019s Alison McLean \u2013 \u201cWe set the rules of engagement:\u201d How one community took control when wind and solar came to town<\/a>. And you can listen to Mclean in this episode of the Energy Insiders podcast: Energy Insiders Podcast: Regional communities and the renewable gold rush\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The biggest challenge for Engie and The Plains project will likely be in securing a grid connection. Various proposals have been put forward, by Engie and other companies frozen out of the grid, including Squadron Energy and Windlab.<\/p>\n

These include increasing the capacity of the main transmission lines, plugging into the local grid, or using big batteries as \u201cvirtual transmission\u201d or giant shock absorbers, such as the Waratah Super Battery <\/a>that is allowing more capacity to flow into the major load centres in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.<\/p>\n

Engie has proposed a 400 MW, 1600 MWh battery at The Plains, and others have proposals at either end of the new transmission link, Project EnergyConnect.<\/p>\n

Another option is to try and attract data centres to the region, to provide local load and reduce the need for transmission to take the power somewhere else. <\/p>\n

Engie\u2019s Laura Caspari discussed this option in this episode of the Energy Insiders podcast: Energy Insiders: Solar and battery make better grid partners than wind<\/a><\/p>\n

Data centres expert Andrew Walton also has some interesting views on this, which you can find in the most recent episode of the Energy Insiders podcast, published Friday \u2013 Energy Insiders Podcast: Data centres and the grid<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Giles Parkinson is founder and editor-in-chief of Renew Economy<\/a>, and founder and editor of its EV-focused sister site The Driven<\/a>. He is the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast<\/a>. Giles has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is a former deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review. You can find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of a number of giant renewable energy projects stranded in the south west of NSW by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-89180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}