If Wind Farms are so Great ~ Why has BP Dumped Australia's Largest Renewables Project?

PART 2 ~ Wind Farm Series ~ BP Decides to Focus on Oil and Gas, rather than massive Wind and Solar Project in the Pilbara.

Events in the Pilbara region of Western Australia may not be on the minds of East Coast citizens. In this report from Jo Nova;

« Once pitched as the largest renewable project in the world — the fantasy is that 1,753 wind turbines, and nearly 11,000 megawatts of solar power will fill 6,500 square kilometers of the Pilbara in Northwest Western Australia.»

Can anyone see a power cable link to anywhere in Australia? How does this benefit Australian taxpayers?

Source: jo nova ~ bhp dumps renewables

The Australian newspaper also covered this story, where Green Hydrogen was also proposed as a fuel stock.

Source: jo nova ~ bp dumps renewables

This 2023 cyclone in Pardoo, WA clearly shows the potential risks investing $Billions into critical infrastructure projects like renewables.

Source: channel 7 news

Note the massive amount of land required for this proposed project.
There are entire nations that equate to this size;

Source: google

South Australia had a massive Demand Spike over the recent Australia Day Weekend, when temperatures soared across the State.

« An electricity price surge driven by a South Australian power shortage has triggered an expert warning of catastrophic national grid failure during a multi-city heatwave.

Frontier Economics chief Danny Price, a key architect of energy policy for state and federal governments, warns renewables cannot meet high electricity demand and predicts significant outages and high prices.

Wholesale electricity spot prices spiked in SA to near the $20,000 per megawatt hour limit on a still Monday night, when household batteries drained and wind generation dipped, prompting the Australian Energy Market Operator to issue a low-reserve warning at 8.42pm.

Gas and coal-fired generators filled the supply gap and capitalised on the higher market prices, which ultimately contribute to household and business bills.»

Source: hancock energy ~ daily telegraph

Note the price Spiked to $20,000 per MWh [ MegaWatt hour] scale on Y axis.

Source: jo nova ~ catastrophic grid failure coming

The Real Cost of Renewables

In PART 1, references were made to $40 Billion per year costs to Australians.
Here are additional sources that also correlate with this horrendous news.

Source: google search

This is what the Business Council of Australia announced via a Media Release.

« The BCA is committed to affordably and reliably achieving net zero by 2050 and supports the setting of ambitious but – importantly – achievable 2035 targets on the pathway there.

We know that Australia’s long-beleaguered approvals system, including the EPBC Act, is a massive handbrake on the transition and we urgently need that addressed to deliver more renewable energy projects.”

Key insights from the report:

Investment scale: Achieving Australia’s 2035 potential will require between $210 billion and $530 billion of new capital investment across the economy by 2035, depending on the level of ambition.»

Source: business council of Australia ~ sept 2025

Consider

A $530 Billion CAPEX over 10 years equates to $53 Billion per year.
Are Aussies truly prepared to endure such a cost?

When BP decided to dump the Pilbara Project, other factors also came into play;

« Not long ago, bizarrely, for an oil company, BP had a target to cut its own oil production by 40% from 2019 levels by 2030. Not surprisingly this led to an existential crisis where in February it was on the brink of being a takeover target. It’s now planning to reopen Libyan oil and gas fields instead.»

Source: jo nova ~ bp abandons pilbara project

Next up ~ Is Net Zero Achievable?

~~ analyse ~ adapt ~ evolve ~~