Construction starts on second phase of Warradarge Wind Farm as State Government races to switch off coal

The State Government is doing “everything it can” to meet its target to shut down coal by 2030, Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said as construction of a major wind farm project kicks off. Analysis by the Australian Energy Market Operator in June warned that a fresh wave of investment into green energy would be needed to hit the Government’s goal. Adding to the challenge is the ongoing fight between insolvent miner Griffin Coal and private power plant Bluewaters, leaving uncertainty hanging over a major baseload energy generator. Ms Sanderson has been getting on the front foot in response and on Tuesday said there were “a number of very credible, and potential, projects that are in the pipeline” to help plug the gap. She pointed to data from the State’s Energy Coordinator showing more than 1 gigawatt of new capacity committed in the next two years. That’s equivalent to about a quarter of peak demand on a very hot February day in Perth. A further 9GW is under consideration. “The Government is supporting projects, both through the private sector and through Synergy, to ensure that we have enough wind, battery, and solar capacity (to serve) not only the existing demand but (also) meet demand into the future,” Ms Sanderson said. Asked whether she was confident the State would switch off coal by the end of the decade, she said “we’re doing everything we can to meet that target”. Taxpayer-owned Synergy expects to fork out $278m subsidising its coal plants over the next three years. The ageing units, near Collie, don’t always run at full capacity because the grid is flush with cheap rooftop solar during the day. But building out the transmission network for the transition will also be expensive, and AEMO wants more investment into generation and longer-duration storage, too. It came as the first sod was turned on construction at stage two of the Warradarge wind farm in the Mid West. The $400 million project will expand capacity to more than 280MW — which the Government said will be the biggest wind farm in the State. Synergy is a 20 per cent shareholder in the project through Bright Energy Investments following a privatisation deal in 2018. The remainder is now held by Potentia Energy after it bought out Cbus Super and CVC DIF. Ms Sanderson declared the public-private joint venture had been “a great model”. Warradarge’s first stage was “one of the highest performing wind farms in Australia,” she said. Bright Energy Investments General Manager Tom Frood said the wind resources in the Mid West were “world class”. He said there was a substantial work under way across WA to find locations for new wind projects, and there was a “very positive attitude“ in the State to green energy investment. “I’m very confident WA should be able to meet the transition needs,” Mr Frood said.