There are currently 3,365 turbines proposed for Qld delivering name plate capacity of approx. 22,874MW. This excludes the wind farms that I know are planned but don’t have turbine quantities for. The proposed Proserpine Wind Farm for example will have over 200 turbines so safe to assume there are over 4,000 turbines thus far. Considering a capacity factor of say 25% then we will need to double this number of turbines to say 6,600 turbines to keep lights on at night in summer if there is wind. If we have a few nights of no wind and the proposed theoretical Eungella Pumped Hydro is built then we can keep lights on for a few hours here and there. To achieve true Net Zero (removing carbon from agriculture and transport fleet) then pick a number above 20,000 turbines required and if no wind start building a fleet of gas plants. If we want theoretical hydrogen add another 10,000 – 25,000 turbines again if you can find any more land where there is wind.
There are some wind farms down south of the state that I am unfamiliar with and seem to be on either cleared or mostly cleared land. I have ground truthed many sites from Gladstone north and many are in very high biodiverse areas due to their untouched rugged and remote topography.
I’ve left Chalumbin WF on my animation because it will no doubt come back in some form or another depending on who gets the available capacity first in the transmission.
Enjoy 3 years of data collection showcasing the future destruction of some of our best high elevation refugia forests (north of Gladstone).
H/T observa
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