MacIntyre’s wind turbines. He, along with other land-owners and members of the community, have worked with ACCIONA Energía on MacIntyre’s design to improve its positive impact. “We have a good level of confidence in open and transparent communica-tion,” comments Finlay. “Their stakeholder relations have been fantastic.” Central to MacIntyre’s success has also been the dialog and partnerships built with the local community and landowners as part of the wind farm’s Community Engagement Program. “When we met with these families for the first time, we asked them to trust a company they had never heard of to build a project on a scale never before seen in Australia,” says Wickham. “It’s a big ask of people when you talk to them about building a wind farm. But it wouldn’t have been possible to earn the community’s trust with-out our guiding principle of putting the community first. When we build a wind farm we’re making a commitment to the area of at least 25 years. Because of that, its critical that we get the community and landowner ele-ment right, and give back to the community that is supporting us.” The company leases land from farmers to host the turbines, allow-ing the owners to supplement their sheep and cattle rearing income, and they’ll have free use of the access tracks that will be built on their property to maintain the turbines. “MacIntyre has set a new standard for Australian wind farms and how the wind farm industry consults and interacts with the community,” says Wickham. Finlay seems to wel-come this change, comparing it to the oil and gas drilling he saw as NFF president: “I have higher hopes for the wind industry.” MACINTYRE IN FIGURES CLEAN ENERGY THE wind FARM IS CLOSE TO THE TRANSMISSION NETWORK AND A MAJOR LOAD CENTER FOR QUEENSLAND Investment of AUD 2 billion, with AUD 500 million going to Queensland based suppliers. The wind farm will avoid the annual emission of three mil-lion tons of CO2, the equivalent of removing some 633,000 motor vehicles from circulation each year. 180 Nordex Delta 4000-N163 turbines, named onshore “turbine of the year” in 2021 by Wind Power Monthly mag-azine, will be installed on 36,000 hectares of land. The blade aerodynamics allow more energy to be generated with few-er turbines (5.7 MW each). Each blade weighs 26.6 tons, and the towers measure 148m from base to Nacelle and 235m from base to tip of blade. Over 1,000 kilometers of medium-voltage underground cabling will connect the turbines and substations.