Queensland will spend $5 billion on an 1100km electricity transmission line linking the state’s vast northwest mining region to the national grid for the first time.
The state government will take over private company CuString’s planned CopperString 2.0 project to build a high-voltage line from Townsville to the northwest, which is rich in copper, zinc, lead, silver and potentially phosphate and rare earth minerals.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the line capacity will be increased between Townsville and Hughenden to allow future renewable energy projects to connect to the grid as well.
State-owned transmission provider Powerlink will conduct early work this year before construction starts next year, with the project due to be completed by 2029.
“CopperString is the most significant investment in economic infrastructure in North Queensland in generations,” Ms Palaszczuk said in a statement on Tuesday.
Claudia Brumme-Smith, CEO of economic development body Townsville Enterprise, said having a concrete timeline will give green energy and mining projects certainty to invest.
“We have spoken to plenty of prime ministers, plenty of premiers, and they all were supportive, but no one ever put their money where their mouth is,” she told ABC Radio North Queensland on Tuesday.
“The premier has done that today. Yes, it took us 10 years, but … we haven’t built transmission lines like that for decades.”
Ms Brumme-Smith said there were “billions of dollars in the wings” as wind farms, solar farms and critical mineral mining projects waited on the enabling infrastructure.
She is projecting a total of 3000 jobs for the region accounting for the subsequent projects.
Climate Council campaigner Nathan Hart said the transmission line was “the missing link” in Australia’s energy transformation.
“CopperString 2.0’s high-capacity transmission opens up massive renewable energy potential in one of the sunniest places on earth,” he said.
“That means cheap and plentiful electricity for manufacturing and industrial heat.”
In January the government indicated it was keen to take over the project, after CopperString 2.0 was given federal approval in December.
“Building this transmission line opens up 6000 megawatts of potential renewable energy in the North Queensland Renewable Energy Zone, creating more jobs than our state has ever seen in a new, decarbonised resources sector stretching from Townsville to Mount Isa,” Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said in a statement.
“They’re starting right now, with early works packages to be rolled out almost immediately.”
Stephanie Gray, deputy director of Solar Citizens said, unlocking 6000 megawatts of renewable capacity would be “the equivalent of doubling the existing large-scale solar and wind farms in Queensland”.
She said the region “has some of the country’s best co-located solar and wind resources that can be turned into abundant, cheap electricity”.
The project, which has bipartisan support, has been the subject of multiple state and federal election promises over the years.
Local federal and state MPs Bob Katter and Robbie Katter have been pushing for CopperString 2.0 since 2003.
© AAP 2023
