Alinta Energy has pared back plans to develop a wind farm in Queensland’s Whitsunday region, after encountering a less than ideal wind resource in one part of the proposed project area and community cohort that is less than receptive to hosting turbines.
The Mt Challenger wind farm had proposed to install up to 30 wind turbines across two sites in the Whitsunday hinterland, taking in the semi-rural localities of Kelsey Creek to the south and Crystal Brook to the north.
But on Friday, the energy utility advised that it is dropping the Kelsey Creek section of the project, based on early feedback from both the meteorological masts and from disgruntled locals.
“We have now completed six months of LIDAR wind monitoring in the southern area of the proposed project,” Alinta Energy’s general manager of development, Andres Maasing, said in a community update.
“The results show that the wind resource in that area is not strong enough to support locating turbines there. As a result, we have removed wind turbines from the southern area of the proposed project.
