July 11, 2025
The Federal Government has given the green light to a new solar farm along the Wide Bay Highway at Lower Wonga.
Environment Minister Murray Watt said on Tuesday the 100MW Hookey Creek solar farm would produce enough energy to power 40,000 homes.
The project, proposed for beside the existing Woolooga Solar Farm, would also include a 200MW battery energy storage system with up to eight hours of storage capacity.
It is about 1km from the Woolooga sub-station.
Although the project has passed its Federal approval, the developers will still have to lodge a Development Application with Gympie Regional Council.
Minister Watt said the Federal approval process took just 17 days because 267ha site was “designed so its environmental impacts were minimised”.
“It will be located on predominantly cleared land, so there’s an option for agricultural use on the site, including sheep grazing through the solar array, demonstrating once again that there’s ways for renewables and agriculture to work together,” Minister Watt said.
The project is being developed by Zen Energy Future Pty Ltd on behalf of Zebre Pty Ltd (a consortium between Australian-owned Zen Energy and Taiwan-based renewable energy company HDRE).
Minister Watt said the project would support “up to 264 direct jobs during construction with several ongoing positions”.
What a load of crap… destroying good agricultural land. What jobs? Apart from construction there are no ongoing jobs. You only have to drive past them to see no one working