Forrest urges all industrialists to power up renewables

Green energy champion Andrew Forrest has opened a $500 million wind farm that will supply energy to homes, supermarkets and toll roads.

Cutting the ribbon on Friday to officially open Squadron Energy’s Bango Wind Farm, he said it was “another cut in the throat of the fossil fuel industry”.

Dr Forrest said the wind farm was an important milestone for the company and Australia’s transition to green energy.

Located near Yass, Bango is the third-largest wind farm in NSW and generates enough electricity to power 144,000 homes.

The billionaire called on all industrialists to help Australia eliminate pollution and stop burning more oil and gas.

“It’s our responsibility to change,” Dr Forrest said.

“We are the problem.”

By displacing coal and gas-fired electricity, Squadron says Bango will prevent 543,000 tonnes of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere every year.

But Australia needs to build an average of 40 wind turbines a month to hit the national target of 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and slash the country’s carbon footprint.

“Today, we’re delivering 46 turbines in the first wind farm to come online in NSW in more than a year,” Dr Forrest said.

“We will be doing everything we can to make sure Australia hits that target.”

Greening the grocery supply chain, Woolworths has signed a power purchase agreement with Squadron Energy that will cover the energy needs of almost one-third of its NSW supermarkets.

Snowy Hydro and toll road giant Transurban will also buy electricity from Bango.

Squadron is owned by Tattarang, the private investment group of Andrew and Nicola Forrest, and has a 20-gigawatt development pipeline of renewable generation and storage projects.