The source rejected suggestions the shutdown was related to safety or cultural heritage, saying there would not be a significant delay to the project, which is expected to export power to the grid by 2025.
Still, the move to change contractors mid-project is unusual. One industry source said the call to demobilise was significantly different from a temporary stand-down.
Trial run
Dr Forrest became one of Australia’s biggest owners of renewable energy assets last year with the aquisition of CWP, giving Squadron massive reach into NSW and adding to renewable assets that already have 2.4 gigawatts of capacity and an Australian development pipeline of 20GW.
Dr Forrest is also a 75 per cent owner of Windlab.
Earlier this month, Squadron Energy undertook a trial run of moving the 76-metre, 100-tonne turbines from the Port of Gladstone to Marlborough – a 300-kilometre journey.
Squadron Energy, Dr Forrest’s private company, bought the Clarke Creek wind farm off Goldwind and Lacour last year.
The Fortescue Metals founder is keen to build a clean energy hub in central Queensland which will also link to the $1 billion electrolyser factory which one of his other companies, Fortescue Future Industries, is building in Gladstone.
After the purchase last year, Dr Forrest said the Clarke Creek hub would be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere, producing enough wind, solar and battery energy to power more than 660,000 Queensland homes, and would export lower-cost electricity directly into the National Electricity Market.
“It’s a significant new power source and that’s going to increase the supply and push down power prices for every single Queenslander,” Dr Forrest told The Australian Financial Review in February last year.
Dr Forrest said the project was a critical part of the nine-fold increase in wind and solar capacity that was needed to help Australia reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Construction of the project started last year, with the stage one to have a total capacity of 450MW and include 100 turbines.
It is aiming to start exporting electricity by 2025, with a 15-year power purchase agreement to supply 346.5 MW to state-owned energy company Stanwell Corporation.
The project is being built on the land of the Barada Kabalbara Yetimarala people, with 76,300 hectares across eight private landholdings.
Heritage issues have popped up elsewhere for Dr Forrest.
Fortescue Metals Group has been entangled in a legal dispute with some traditional owners about its creation of the Solomon iron ore mining hub in Western Australia’s resource-rich Pilbara.
Traditional owners represented by the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation have argued they suffered hurt and loss by what they allege was Fortescue destroying significant sites.
Fortescue has instead supported a breakaway traditional owner corporation there, while negotiating agreements with other traditional owner groups in the Pilbara on the basis of non-exclusive rights.