Wind farm. Author: Dirk Ingo Franke. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
French renewables company Neoen SA (EPA:NEOEN) today said it has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 215-MW portion of its 330-MW Mount Hopeful wind farm in central Queensland, Australia.
The deal is with Queensland government-owned electricity company Stanwell Corp, which will buy 65% of the wind farm’s generation in order to be able to provide clean energy to its commercial and industrial customers. Construction of the wind power plant is due to start in the second half of 2023, with first power expected in 2026.
According to the announcement, Neoen and Stanwell are studying future renewable energy projects in Queensland. Neoen says it is Australia’s largest renewables outfit with over 2.5 GW in operation or under construction, including 817 MW in Queensland.
This is Neoen’s first PPA with Stanwell, and Mount Hopeful is its third project in the state.
Meanwhile, Stanwell earlier in December announced that Queensland’s largest green hydrogen project, the CQ-H2 scheme, has completed its feasibility study and is getting ready to initiate a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study in early 2023.
Stanwell is developing the project with Iwatani Corp, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Kansai Electric Power Company, Marubeni and APA Group.
The project could reach production of 800 tonnes of hydrogen per day. It is expected to provide AUD 17.2 billion (USD 11.5bn/EUR 10.8bn) in exports and AUD 12.4 billion to Queensland’s gross domestic product over its 30-year lifetime.
