Archer farm in the wind - German consortium backs $250m project

Cooktown Local News
Wednesday 23/4/2008 Page: 1

A GERMAN consortium has agreed to build a $250 million, 50-turbine wind farm at Archer Point, 15km south of Cooktown. After almost two decades of planning, Wind Power Queensland Pty Ltd has signed a letter of intent with the powerful consortium of wind farm developers, turbine manufacturers and bankers to fund and build the project. It meant that the proposed 120 megawatt renewable energy project was on track to boost the Far North's power grid within two years, said WPQ managing director Lloyd Stumer.

The German consortium was completing due diligence processes for the development, with its Queensland representative, Edwin Cywinski of eco-Kinetics, meeting with Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson in February, he said. While the project's ultimate size was dependent on "commercial and grid considerations", Mr Stumer said an initial 120MW wind farm - enough to power Cairns and beyond - would cost about $180 million in overseas turbine construction alone.

He said a further $36 million was earmarked for construction and grid connections, with locals to comprise about two-thirds of the peak workforce of 40-50 people for six months. And annual operations costs of about $4 million, as well as lease payments to indigenous traditional owners, would create another five or six full-time jobs for locals. The Archer Point wind farm would be only the second in the state and 10 times the size of the Atherton Tableland's.

It would also be "an important boost to the now fragile power requirements" of the Far North in the face of a forecast 30 per cent spike in power demand by 2016, said Mr Stumer. The project would tap into the expertise of its investors, with Germany the world leader in wind power, producing more than twice the amount of wind power in megawatts than Queensland's entire electricity grid generates. He said it was the new Federal Government's commitment to legislate for 20 per cent of energy to be renewable by 2020 - which could see a tenfold increase in Australia's wind energy production - that hooked the German investment.

Australia's signing in December of the Kyoto Protocol, a commitment to join nations taking measures to combat climate change, also made the Archer project more attractive to investors, he said. "If policy had changed two years ago, this wind farm could be operating now," he said. The turbines would be built by consortium partner Enercon, the world's third-largest manufacturer and supplier for Windy Hill at Ravenshoe and other Australian wind farms.

The remainder of the consortium includes the world's fifth-largest bank, Deutsche Bank; Germany's leading wind farm financier, Aktiva Group; and major wind farm developer IfE Engineering. Mr Stumer said the group was also interested in tourism opportunities, with the towering turbines proven to be attractions in their own right.

Meanwhile, he said Wind Power Qld had recently applied for permission to conduct the required commercial and environmental investigations for the proposed project. But detailed studies by Wind Power Queensland had already "confirmed Archer Point as the best wind farm site in Queensland" due to the strength and consistency of south-east tradewinds crossing the coastal region, said the former Australian Bureau of Meteorology employee.

And preliminary support for the project had already been received from governments, indigenous and other stakeholders, he said. A 2300ha seaward tract of the scenic Archer region was in 2006 reserved for the wind farm investigations, during a land handover for 8800ha of Annan River National Park and 1700ha of indigenous freehold. The Cook Shire Council also negotiated for two coastal parcels in the popular camping area - one for a recreation reserve as well as a former 1970s deep water port site, which could be used to receive materials during wind farm construction.

Mr Stumer said a public information meeting with Cooktown residents would be organised as soon as possible once the German consortium finished its due diligence requirements. The project would need to come before the council for approval and be subject to public comment unless it was declared significant and called in by State or Federal ministers.