Skye Ridge is a project located west of the Walcha township, aiming to build 140 turbines, with a nameplate capacity of 840 MW. This was a concept drawn up by Walcha Energy, and offloaded to Origin in February 2024. At this stage, there was no scoping report submitted, no real detail of the project. It was little more than an idea.
Origin have shown no indication of genuine interest to progress the project since the reality of poor location, biodiversity risk, and fading landholder support have been made abundantly clear to the new owners of the project. Deadlines for the Scoping Report have been promised “next quarter” since the middle of 2022 – and are now not even spoken about, as newsletters, and other forms of communication, have largely disappeared.
This could be a broader economic reality with wind developments, as much as any local issues.
Prior to taking ownership of the concept of Ruby Hills Wind, and renaming it Skye Ridge, Origin had purchased a going concern in the south of the state – Yanco Delta Wind. This is a 1500MW project, on the open plains near Hay NSW, that had progressed through Scoping, EIS and had been granted consent for construction. It has very little opposition (Two objections in total!! ). The project has negligible biodiversity risk of damage, laying on the open plains, in arid, low rainfall land. The project has easy access on flat land providing an ideal construction site, it is approved by NSW Planning, and ready to go. Yet STILL, Origin recently announced that it will delay financial commitment for at least 18 months. That is certainly a bad omen for a project like Skye Ridge.
The economic viability of wind generation was poor 5 years ago, it has only become more expensive, while solar and battery has become cheaper.
The only project recognised by EnergyCo as being a generator that will connect to the Central South Hub, 15km west of Walcha, is Skye Ridge Wind. Without this project, there is zero justification for the Central South Hub.
Energy Co are having a hard time justifying the Central South Hub, and the massive transmission build to connect it to Bayswaqter.
