Decarbonising Australia’s energy market is central to protecting regional Australia’s unique landscapes, communities and lifestyle from the compounding threats of climate change.
At the same time, efforts to decarbonise our national energy system must not result in net-loss outcomes for the ecosystems we’re working to protect.
Queensland’s renewable energy resources are strategically important to support Australia’s clean energy transition. Bungaban is a valuable large-scale renewable energy project that can be grid connected and producing clean, competitively priced energy for Queensland’s homes, business and industry by 2029, while displacing around 4 million tonnes of carbon from the state’s annual energy generation profile.
Through a strategic partnership with Rio Tinto, Bungaban also highlights the major value of developing new renewable energy projects to ensure the long-term sustainability of Queensland’s traditional powerhouse industries and critical resources sector.
wind energy project
with existing operations, with cattle able to graze right up to the base of the turbine
equivalent of cost-competitive, clean energy
Queensland’s critical minerals processing industry
from Queensland’s energy generation profile every year
Windlab’s development approach takes place over a number of years to ensure we can deliver high performing projects that balance stakeholder and expert feedback, technical constraints and regulatory requirements. The location of Bungaban has been strategically chosen due to its excellent wind resource and high levels of historical clearance and disturbance. Bungaban’s proposed layout will continue to be refined in response to stakeholder feedback and ongoing technical studies.
More than 99 per cent of the project’s temporary development footprint occurs within non-remnant, historically cleared and disturbed land, with critical infrastructure positioned away from sensitive areas, minimising overall biodiversity impacts.
Detailed ecological assessments have been ongoing since 2022, with further cross-seasonal surveys and cultural heritage assessments planned as the project progress through the approvals process. Windlab is working with ecologists, experts and regulators to produce a layout that results in the best possible environmental outcome, while still resulting in a high performing wind project.
Following construction, Windlab will rehabilitate and restore more than 80 percent of the development footprint – resulting in a layout for the remaining life of the project that is 1 per cent of the hosts’ combined 50,311ha cattle properties.
The Hub is comprised of individually permitted, complementary wind, solar and storage projects within on location. Each project will require separate and independent regulatory approvals.
The Bungaban wind energy project will be assessed under the Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This is the Commonwealth legislative framework that protects and manages nationally and internationally significant flora, fauna, ecological communities, and heritage places.
Bungaban was referred under the EPBC Act in April 2024, and it is anticipated that the project’s Preliminary Documentation will be available for public consultation by mid 2025.
Bungaban also requires approvals from State and local authorities.
Ecological assessment requirements for the Queensland Government's State Assessment and Referral Agency are prescribed in State code 23: Wind farm development and State Code 16: Native vegetation clearing.
A Development Application (DA) along with specialist studies considering environmental and social factors has been submitted to the Queensland Government for assessment.
All projects within The Hub will have a detailed end-of-life decommissioning and rehabilitation plan as a condition of the project’s approvals.
All built assets – from wind turbines and solar panels, to highways, rail lines and bridges – have a finite operating life. Bungaban has an initial operating life of 30 to 35 years.
As part of our leading-practice approach to development, Windlab builds decommissioning planning into lease agreements with host landholders from the outset.
When Bungaban reaches the end of its life, all above ground project infrastructure will be dismantled and removed from the site. Bungaban’s operating footprint, including tracks, hardstands or laydown areas will be restored to native ecosystems.
Many of the components used in renewable energy projects remain valuable even after the project itself reaches the end of its life. Equipment and assets in good repair can be transferred to other projects, on-sold, or donated to support regional community organisations. Steel and other metals used in turbine towers, transmission structures and overhead cabling can be onsold for recycling. Advances in technology currently underway will offer new and innovative solutions for recovering valuable resources from carbon-fibre turbine blades and other materials.
As Bungaban nears the end of its nameplate term, options like upgrading and repowering turbines could extend the valuable operating life of the project by many years.
