We're decarbonising our isolated communities
We’re working together for a cleaner energy future – reducing our remote or isolated community’s reliance on fossil fuels, in line with the Queensland Government's renewable energy targets.
It’s about caring for Country, and the community, by powering tomorrow with clean, reliable, and affordable energy.
Help us shape this energy future, have your say…
Survey - How can our remote or isolated communities best benefit from the clean energy transition?
If you are an interested stakeholder, there is also the opportunity to say more... and register to be part of other Clean Energy Big Yarnin activities… with the full survey.
About our isolated communities
Our 33 isolated networks are microgrid systems (consisting of both generation and network assets) that supply electricity to 39 remote communities throughout western Queensland, the Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, throughout the Torres Strait, and on Palm and Mornington Islands.
These communities are situated in some of the most remote locations in Queensland and are not connected to the national electricity grid, or part of the National Electricity Market.
Traditionally, these communities have been powered by centralised power stations run on diesel generation. Generating electricity using diesel and transporting the diesel long distances and through environmentally sensitive areas, poses a range of environmental and economic challenges.
The projects profiled below are about doing our bit to improve the sustainability of our isolated electricity networks and supporting the Queensland Government’s renewable energy targets.
We are looking at ways to modernise and future-proof our isolated networks and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
Our aim is to integrate more renewable generation, along with battery energy storage systems, into the community’s power supply.
Transitioning to renewable energy will reduce our reliance on diesel generation, and provide a positive, step-change for the environment. It will require new technologies, as well as community support, to find the right future solutions for a stable and reliable electricity supply for our isolated communities.
Customers in these remote locations will continue to only pay the same price for their electricity as Queenslanders across the state, as part of the Queensland Government’s Uniform Tariff Policy.
In the longer term, introducing renewable energy into Queensland’s energy mix, will help put downward pressure on electricity prices for all.
That’s just one of the benefits associated with decarbonising our isolated communities. Decarbonising our isolated communities will also:
- Investing in the power systems will ensure a reliable and secure power supply for the years to come.
- Providing clean, renewable energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions – the two wind turbines on Thursday Island have generated 19,000MWh of renewable energy over their lifetime (with more now to come).
- An integrated system will allow greater access to the economic benefits of roof top solar.
- Supporting the electrification of the lives and livelihoods in these communities, which is rapidly occurring in our regional centres.
- Be good for the local environment as we reduce generating the electricity with diesel, and the associated air quality, fuel storage and transportation risks.
- And potentially other community benefits as we work together to increase employment opportunities, support self-determination, protect Country and benefit from First Nations land stewardship.
Ultimately, we’re focussed on supporting positive community outcomes, with environmentally and financially sustainable energy solutions, for each of our isolated communities.
Windorah solar farm and battery project
Skip to descriptionHi I'm Andrew, and I'm here at the Windorah Power Station, where with some funding support from the Queensland government, we're building a new solar farm and battery.
The new facility will be built on the same site as the old solar concentrators right next to me here at the Windorah power station. The new system will consist of around 850 KW of solar and have 1 1/2 megawatt hours of battery storage.
The system will generate enough electricity to supply around 75% of the town's power needs. And because it will harness the sun's energy to create electricity, we estimate it will reduce the amount of diesel used to power the town by about 200,000 litres a year. So it's also great for the environment.
It's all part of our plan to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to decarbonize our isolated networks.
If you want to know more about the Windorah project, or our broader plans to decarbonize our isolated networks, you can check out our website.
In this video, senior isolated network project engineer Andrew Kunst explains what's on the horizon to power the outback Queensland community of Windorah.
Our current decarbonisation projects
We will decarbonise our 33 isolated power stations progressively over time, starting these changes in 2024 in the following isolated communities:
FAQs
Read our FAQs for more information.
Get in touch with us
We are also engaging stakeholders now on potential solutions for our other isolated communities, so please do not hesitate to get in touch.
For more information or to provide us feedback, please contact our Community Engagement team:
Email: NetworkProjectEngagement@energyq.com.au
Phone: 1300 653 055