Ark Energy signs landmark Power Purchase Agreement with Telstra

Located approximately 50 kilometres south-west of Warwick in Queensland, MacIntyre Wind Farm is set to be the largest windfarm in Australia at the time of its commissioning in 2025.

Ark Energy has a 30% interest in ACCIONA Energía’s MacIntyre Wind Farm through an Unincorporated Joint Venture and intends to use the majority of its interest to decarbonise both the Sun Metals Zinc Refinery (Sun Metals) in Townsville and Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunication company.

Ark Energy Chairman, Yun Choi, said the PPA with Telstra is another significant milestone in Ark Energy’s relatively short history.

“At first, I founded Ark Energy to decarbonise the Korea Zinc Group starting with Sun Metals, however as we have grown our renewable energy portfolio, so has our ambition to accelerate the energy transition more broadly by supporting other similar commercial and industrial scale businesses decarbonise their energy supply. We are delighted for Telstra to be our first major third-party PPA customer,” said Mr Choi.

Telstra Group Executive – Product & Technology, Kim Krogh Andersen, said the agreement built on previous significant investments Telstra has made in solar farms, wind farms and carbon farming.

“Agreements like this one will help insulate Telstra from fluctuating wholesale electricity prices. Our annual power bill is equivalent to 300,000 household power bills, so signing long-term renewable energy agreements helps us to manage our costs,” said Mr Krogh Andersen.

Ark Energy Vice Chairwoman, Kathy Danaher, said the MacIntyre Wind Farm, as the largest wind farm in the country, is well placed to support a number of large commercial and industrial customers accelerate their own energy transition.

“Ark Energy is proud to play a tangible role in supporting an iconic Australian business such as Telstra achieve its ambitious 2025 renewable energy target,” said Ms Danaher.