Nari Nari Tribal Council looks to wind farm to restore culture & country

September 24, 2024 3:01 AM

Nari Nari Tribal Council looks to wind farm to restore culture and country in New South Wales. A traditional owners' group strikes an agreement that could see it become an equity partner in a renewable energy project proposed for their land in the state's south west. Only one per cent of renewable developments in Australia involve Indigenous ownership, compared with 20 per cent in Canada.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (2 comments total)

This will help the Nari Nari a lot.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:31 AM on September 24

After reading the article my takeaway is the tribe is [presumably] leasing the land to an outside firm and gets an equity stake in return for investing $10M of its own money.

78 turbines producing 530 megawatts means each turbine has to produce 7MW. Industry standard turbines are 2-4MW at $1.3M (US) per MW. Let's be charitable and assume that stays true scaling up from standard to custom.

We're at 78 x 7 x 1.3 = $709M for equipment; let's allow another $78M for installation and transmission hookups, $1M per unit. Roughly $800M all told.

$10M buys the Nari Nari an 8% share. Depending on the terms of their equity it would take 7 years of $20M after tax profit for them to recoup their equity.

Coming from a country with a long history of screwing the native population I'd advise them to look very closely at their investment.
posted by MarcWolfe at 6:29 PM on September 24