Work currently underway on a 275kV SuperGrid Link between Cairns and Townsville will unlock up to 500MW of additional renewable energy capacity says the Palaszczuk Government.
The project involves Powerlink upgrading a section of the existing 132kV coastal transmission line to permanently operate at 275kV capacity. The Palaszczuk Government has invested $40 million from $145 million in Queensland Renewable Energy Zone funding allocation for the upgrade.
“It means we can pump more renewables into the Queensland SuperGrid and create more good jobs in our publicly owned energy system for workers in North Queensland,” said Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick de Brenni. “This new SuperGrid Link also improves grid reliability for North Queenslanders to better manage extreme weather events such as storms and cyclones.”
Among the renewables projects the upgrade will support is the Kaban Green Power Hub1, which consists of a 157 MW wind farm with approval for a 100 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) and is expected to be completed this year.
“The Queensland SuperGrid will be the electricity superhighway that connects our renewable energy to demand up and down the coast,” Minister de Brenni stated. “It means that wherever energy is generated, particularly in North Queensland–we can capture it, send it, or store it where it’s needed most.”
Queensland SuperGrid A Major Jobs Generator
Part of the $62 billion Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan announced in September last year, the Palaszczuk Government says the SuperGrid initiative won’t just enhance reliability, security and affordability of energy supply, but is also key to unlocking 100,000 new jobs in energy generation, critical minerals mining, battery manufacturing and of course the saveur du jour: green hydrogen.
The SuperGrid will create the conditions necessary for the state to achieve 50% renewable energy by 2030, 70% by 2032, and 80% by 2035. So, how close is Queensland to that first target? Last year, renewables contributed 22.4% to electricity demand in the state; up from 19.2% in 2021. Assuming the 50% by 2030 is achieved, there’s going need to be a bunch of activity to get to the 70% just two years after that.
The Queensland SuperGrid Infrastructure Blueprint can be found here.
QLD Small-Scale Solar Also A Big Deal
Big renewables projects such as Kaban and related initiatives such as the SuperGrid are super-exciting stuff. But the role of home solar power in Queensland in bringing the state to where it is today has been substantial.
Rooftop solar contributed 10.2% to QLD electricity consumption last year – around the same as utility-scale PV and wind power combined. Of the top ten small-scale solar postcodes in Australia, Queensland is represented by four in terms of total installations to date, and five for total installed capacity. And the Queensland rooftop solar sector has already supported a bunch of jobs.
Powerlink Trivia: Powerlink delivers electricity to almost four million Queenslanders through its high voltage transmission network, which extends around 1,700 kilometres from Cairns to the NSW border.
Footnotes
- On a related note, late last year Powerlink used a specialised drone to help with stringing transmission lines between towers to connect Kaban to the grid – more on that here. ↩
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