![VisIR's John O'Brien with RAPAD CEO David Arnold and Barcaldine Shire Council mayor Sean Dillon. Picture supplied. VisIR's John O'Brien with RAPAD CEO David Arnold and Barcaldine Shire Council mayor Sean Dillon. Picture supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/88uitQDCBZnXA8enwGJ5Zd/1db6f415-f55e-4f29-91b2-312d74d9fa38.jpg/r0_121_3400_2040_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A memorandum of understanding to develop a 930-kilometre clean energy corridor through the heart of western Queensland has been announced.
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The seven Remote Area Planning and Development Board councils and CopperString's founders have agreed to work with landholders and communities to establish a new transmission network from Hughenden to Barcaldine and east to Biloela, described as helping power Queensland's green industrial and hydrogen export ambitions, particularly at Gladstone and Townsville.
The MoU for the RAPAD Power Grid is between RAPAD, the Barcaldine Regional Council, and Queensland firm VisIR Pty Ltd, a specialist electricity industry private capital investment firm and the parent company for CuString P/L, the proponent for the Copperstring 2.0 project.
The announcement was made in Brisbane where the RAPAD mayors were holding end-of-year meetings, and has been hailed as securing jobs and growth for western Queensland.
The grid will comprise 5.2GW of world-leading high voltage direct current transmission technology, and approximately 4200 megawatts of solar generation.
Queensland's first renewable energy industrial precinct is being set up in Barcaldine, receiving $7m in the last state budget towards common user infrastructure to get the proposed BREZ precinct off the ground, and Barcaldine mayor Sean Dillon was quick to point out the wide open spaces the solar generation would be using.
"It only needs to utilise 0.06 per cent of the RAPAD area to produce over 4000 megawatts of solar, and probably won't need to cut down a single tree," he said.
He said there had already been initial and constructive discussions with numerous landholders, and Indigenous custodian representatives.
![A map outlining where the proposed RAPAD power grid will go. A map outlining where the proposed RAPAD power grid will go.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/88uitQDCBZnXA8enwGJ5Zd/cf146cd2-2139-4d8b-9984-7be207f56548.jpg/r0_0_3750_2667_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Out west, we see the risks of developing energy infrastructure in other regions that are more densely populated, with more intensive agriculture, more vegetation to clear, and lower quality energy resources, and we believe this creates a big economic opportunity for our region that we want to capture," he said.
"To capture this opportunity, we will need a new transmission line that links the important Townsville to Mount Isa CopperString corridor at Hughenden through the central west and into the industrial and energy centre in Biloela and Gladstone."
RAPAD chairman and Longreach Regional Council mayor Tony Rayner said the social licence for renewable energy projects was a massive challenge in other regions, but they believed a community-led approach, locating transmission lines and other projects "where the vast open spaces and environment can facilitate such development" would be successful and be great for the region and for Queensland.
In doing so, the central west could help build on the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan targets for 80pc renewables by 2035.
"Western Queensland has an unrivalled capacity to produce clean energy and green industrial products, such as urea, and export these products across the state, the nation and the world just as our grazing industry has done for generations," Cr Rayner said.
"With the government's commitment to deliver CopperString 2.0 coming online as part of the Energy and Jobs Plan, and Gladstone and Townsville emerging as green industrial hubs it seems our region might hold the key to Queensland becoming a clean energy superpower.
"We want to ensure we take that opportunity to strengthen our local economy, creating new jobs and complementing our economic mainstays of agriculture and tourism."
Cr Dillon said his council had worked with Professor Ross Garnaut at Zen Energy and the Queensland government to develop the BREZ to harness local renewable energy for new local jobs and businesses, and that initiative remained a key priority that could be enhanced many times over with the RAPAD Power Grid.
VisIR founder Joseph O'Brien said the grid was led by the community and presented a unique opportunity to build on the energy and jobs plan with a clear pathway to supply Queensland as a clean energy superpower.
"Western Queensland holds the key to nature positive clean energy development and our partnership with the central west communities is a unique and powerful model that we are grateful to be part of," he said.
Common-user battery storage would be integrated with the transmission network, and third-party renewables would be able to access the HVDC transmission line.
The transmission network would be a non-regulated line supported by long-term commercial contracts with major network users, such as generators and industrial/wholesale consumers.