Bowen Hub proponents ready to contribute

A planned Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project is being dubbed 'Battery of the North' by the Premier, but a major Central Queensland energy project three years progressed also uses that handle and its proponents say they are willing to share expertise. The $5 billion Bowen Renewable Energy Hub (Bowen Hub) - centred on a major pumped hydro-electric energy storage (PHES) proposal - is being developed by Bowen River Utilities and Renewable Energy Partners in the Mackay hinterland. The proponents have welcomed the release of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, which includes the Pioneer-Burdekin hydro proposal near Mackay, potentially the world's largest PHES project. "Our Bowen Hub really is a nation-building project that supports the government’s vision to integrate wind and solar generation, with pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES)," the group said in a statement. As the most progressed pumped-hydro project in Queensland not already under construction, the Bowen Hub group said it looked forward to being the first to contribute to the government’s 70 per cent renewable energy target. "As a first mover, we look forward to sharing our expertise with the Queensland Government including the government-owned corporations as they now commence the development phase of the renewable energy hubs," the group stated. "We are three years into the progression of our ‘Battery of the North’, which is already strategically located in a renewable energy zone and will deliver dispatchable green energy to around 500,000 Queensland homes - that’s more than enough to power all of North Queensland’s households." The project proponents last month announced that the scheme had attracted support from one of the world’s largest clean energy investors, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The 1.4GW project will integrate wind and solar generation with pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), batteries, and hydrogen production to deliver dispatchable green energy. Stage 1 of the PHES is expected to be online by 2028. It has been designed to deliver 750MW and 16hrs of storage (12,000MWh). This is more than 1.5 times the size of Queensland’s only operating PHES at Wivenhoe Dam. Stage 2 is expected to deliver an additional 12,000MWh of storage and be online by 2033. Meanwhile in North Queensland, construction of Genex Power’s $777 million Kidston pumped hydro energy project is well underway. Genex and its partners are converting the former Kidston gold mine in North Queensland into a clean energy hub which will combine wind, solar and pumped hydro storage. The State Government has set aside $273.5 million – including $203.5 million new funding – to advance the Pioneer-Burdekin PHES project as well as the proposed Borumba Dam PHES near Gympie by 2035. The Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project – which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk dubbed ‘the Battery of the North’ – would offer 5 gigawatts of 24-hour storage with potential for stage 1 to be completed by 2032.

Bowen Hub proponents ready to contribute

Industry Queensland

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