The Bowen Renewable Energy Hub (Bowen Hub) is working with Copenhagen Infrastructure IV, a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners – one of the world’s largest clean energy investors – to advance its 1.4GW integrated renewable and energy storage project that will provide energy security for Central and North Queensland.
The Bowen Hub is being developed by Bowen River Utilities and Renewable Energy Partners and will be located in the Mackay hinterland, on Widi Country.
This nation-building project will integrate wind and solar generation with pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), batteries, and hydrogen production. The project will deliver dispatchable green energy to around 500,000 Queensland homes.
The Bowen Hub will be operating by 2028 and will bring sustainable industry and employment to the region. The project is expected to provide 1200 jobs during construction, and 250 ongoing skilled jobs.
Copenhagen Infrastructure IV has identified the Bowen Hub’s PHES component as one of the most promising investments of its type in Queensland and is working closely with Bowen River Utilities and Renewable Energy Partners on co-development and equity partnerships.
The project also has a Memorandum of Understanding with Queensland Government owned
CS Energy who are considering a range of options for participating in the PHES component of the Bowen Hub such as a power purchase agreement, equity funding and project operations.
Stage 1 of the PHES is expected to be online by 2028. It has been designed to deliver 750MW and 16hrs of storage (12,000MWh), which is over 1.5 times the size of Queensland’s only operating PHES at Wivenhoe Dam. Stage 2 is expected to deliver an additional 12,000MWh of storage and be online by 2033.
The PHES will provide essential energy storage and grid stability services in the transition to net zero by 2050 and contribute significantly to the Queensland Government’s 50 per cent renewable energy target for 2030.
