Community invited to learn about renewable energy project planned for North East
- $2.7B renewable energy project planned for North East
- Attend a drop in session to learn about North East Wind, proposed for the Dorset municipality
4 July 2022, TAS – Community are invited to learn more about a major renewable energy project proposed for the North East region at a drop in session on Tuesday 12 July 2022.
North East Wind involves the proposed development of a large-scale wind farm located on agricultural land in the Dorset municipality across two clusters, Waterhouse in the west and Rushy Lagoon in the east.
With a construction investment of more than $2B and generation capacity of up to 1,260 megawatts, the project would significantly contribute to meeting the Tasmanian Government’s target to double the state’s installed renewable energy generation capacity by 2040.
ACEN Australia acting Chief Executive Officer David Pollington commented that while the North East region has been identified as a ‘high renewable resource area’ by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), our work now is to start to work with community and stakeholders on how the project can be delivered in a way that offers shared value.
“We’ve been monitoring the wind characteristics of the Rushy Lagoon and Waterhouse sites since 2019 and the results are some of the best wind conditions for power generation in the country”, he said.
The project is likely to be assessed in accordance with the State’s new Major Projects process in accordance with the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993. Supporting studies, including environment, noise, visual, cultural heritage and social assessments will be undertaken to inform the design of the project.
“It is expected that the project will have an operational life of more than 25 years. We expect the development to take three to five years and full construction about five years”, he said.
“We’ll be calling for inputs from community and stakeholders including Aboriginal representative groups, training and education providers as well as social enterprises to help shape the project”, he said.
“With such a significant construction investment, it is anticipated that there will be many opportunities for local Tasmanian businesses to be involved”, he added.
“Once the project is operational, there will be long-term employment and service provision opportunities for the region and we have a commitment to employ and buy regionally where we can so we can keep the benefits local. For example, there will be likely opportunities for businesses to provide goods and services such as accommodation and catering, fencing, earthworks and landscaping, environmental monitoring, engineering, construction materials
and equipment just to name a few”.
Learn more about North East Wind at www.newind.com.au
ENDS
Photo caption
From Rushy Lagoon looking north towards Musselroe Wind Farm.
Media enquiries
Michael Connarty
Manager, Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement
ACEN Australia
0407 368 174
michael.connarty@upc-ac.com
About ACEN
ACEN is the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group. The company has ~3,800 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia. The company’s renewable share of capacity is at 87%, among the highest in the region.
ACEN’s aspiration is to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025. In October 2021, ACEN announced its commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
ACEN has been a partner of UPC Renewables in Australia since 2018. In 2021, ACEN began a transaction to eventually own 100% of UPC\AC Renewables by early 2023; with this transaction, the company is now called ACEN Australia. This marks a strategic pivot for ACEN as it embarks on its first wholly owned development and operations platform outside of the Philippines.
More information
ACEN – visit www.acenrenewables.com
ACEN Australia – visit www.upc-ac.com