Windorah lets the sunshine in to bring power to the people

The town of Windorah in remote south west Queensland is living up to its Aboriginal name as a ‘big fish’ in the climate challenge stakes.

Windorah will be the first town in Queensland to use solar power for all of its daytime electricity needs, Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson said in outback Queensland.

“This could revolutionise the way power is produced for remote communities that are not on the national electricity grid,” Mr Wilson said.

Ergon Energy will build Queensland’s first solar farm using five 14-metre diameter solar dishes that will generate about 360,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

“The dishes will act as giant sunflowers, facing and following the sun so they capture as much sunlight as possible,” Mr Wilson said.

“In ideal conditions the farm could generate between 140KW and 175KW which is enough electricity to supply the entire daytime needs of the town.

Windorah’s electricity is supplied by a diesel-powered station on the outskirts of town. It consumes around 240,000 litres of diesel a year.

“The solar farm could save up to 100,000 litres diesel of fuel a year – that’s up to 350 tonnes of greenhouse gases,” he said.

The Minister said there were good reasons why Windorah was chosen as the site for a solar farm.

“It has plenty of sunshine and its power station is relatively new. It will integrate well with the solar system.

“The diesel generators will remain fully functional as they’ll be used at night and on cloudy days when the dishes aren’t generating. The reduced operating hours will give the generators a longer life.

“Solar is silent which will make Windorah by day, a much quieter place for the people who live, work and go to school here,” Mr Wilson said.

The solar farm will be built next door to the power station. Design work has begun and work on the site is expected to start in September. The farm is expected to generate its first kilowatt hours of electricity by the end of next year.

While in outback Queensland, Minister Wilson also inspected the country’s only working geothermal power station in one of the most isolated places on the continent, Birdsville.

The plant draws its energy from near-boiling water taken from the Great Artesian Basin that supplies water for the town.

The power station generates about a quarter of the town’s energy supplies.

“Ergon Energy has undertaken a feasibility study to explore whether it can use the hot water resource to supply all of the town’s day to day power needs.

Geothermal energy is considered to be one the most exciting potential sources of renewable energy in Australia. It provides totally clean, emission-free power.

“This small power station in Birdsville can stand tall as the only one of its kind in the country to tap into a clean and green power source to provide emission-free power,” Mr Wilson said.

The Minister said there was a range of projects in Queensland, all designed to save tens of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

“There’s Swanbank E power station, the country’s newest and most advanced gas-fired power station.

“CS Energy has an oxy-fuel project near Biloela that is expected to demonstrate that our coal fleet can be retro-fitted with oxyfuel technology to achieve even deeper cuts to carbon emissions.

“There’s the ZeroGen project at Stanwell near Rockhampton. If it gets the green light, it could become the first in the world to integrate the technologies of coal gasification and carbon capture and storage to produce base-load electricity with low carbon emissions.

“Some projects are big, some are small, and most are cutting edge technology.

“They’re backed by our $414 million ClimateSmart 2050 policy that puts Queensland on the front foot with innovative energy solutions to address this very real threat to our environment,” Mr Wilson said.

Media Inquiries: Ellen McIntyre 3225 1819