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AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

the Clarke Creek wind farm to be completed so
that construction can start in 2021. The project Energy with 15.7%.
represents an excellent combination of strong, Goldwind increased its installations in 2019
predominantly night-time wind to complement by 19% thanks to an installation rush in its home
Queensland solar production. The project’s loca- market of China.
tion is on the backbone of Powerlink’s high-volt-
age transmission network and the project scale Australian situation
will make a large contribution to Queensland’s At the end of 2019 there were 101 wind farms
renewable energy target,” said Mark Rayner, in Australia, totalling 6,279 MW in capacity.
director of Lacour Energy. The cost of utility-scale wind energy in Aus-
It is also currently developing the Kondinin tralia is expected to continue to fall, with new
wind and solar farm in Western Australia, with wind farms anticipated to deliver electricity at
150 MW of wind, 50 MW of solar and battery around $50-65/MWh in 2020 and below $50/
storage, and the 180-MW Banana Range wind MWh in 2030, the Australian Renewable Energy
farm in Queensland. Goldwind is Lacour’s part- Agency (ARENA) said.
ner at Kondinin and Banana Range. Renewable energy has been a major political
issue in Australia in recent years, as the transition
Chinese interest from coal and gas in some states has proved diffi-
Goldwind currently has five wind projects at cult, with rising power bills and frequent power
the planning stage in Australia, including Clarke cuts.
Creek, Kondinin, Banana Range, Coppabella Meanwhile, the federal government has been
and Espereance. supportive of mining and coal interests.
It also operates four operational wind farms The government has also failed to come up
and two solar farms. with an agreed national energy strategy for the
Goldwind Australia is a wholly owned sub- country’s fragmented power networks, and there
sidiary of Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Tech- is no agreed policy on putting a price on carbon,
nology, which is one of the world’s largest turbine or any other method to support renewables in a
suppliers. cost-effective way.
Goldwind is now the world’s third-biggest The sealing of another PPA that is well con-
turbine supplier, installing 13.2% of the 63 GW nected to existing power infrastructure close
of turbines installed globally in 2019, according to population centres such as Brisbane should
to the Global Wind Energy Council, behind Ves- drive forward solar, wind and battery technology
tas with 18% and Siemens Gamesa Renewable across the country. ™

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