Australian telco Telstra has signed a power purchase agreement with Ark Energy to procure from a wind farm in Queensland.

Ark Energy Corporation, part of Korea Zinc Co, will supply the telco with renewable electricity from its share of the 923.4MW MacIntyre Wind Farm, located outside Warwick.

MacIntyre Wind Farm is set to be the largest wind farm in Australia at the time of its commissioning in 2025; Ark Energy has a 30 percent interest in the Acciona Energía-led project MacIntyre Wind Farm through a Joint Venture and intends to use the majority of its interest to supply both Telstra and Korea Zinc’s Sun Metals Zinc Refinery in Townsville.

“At first, I founded Ark Energy to decarbonize the Korea Zinc Group starting with Sun Metals, however as we have grown our renewable energy portfolio, so has our ambition to accelerate the energy transition more broadly by supporting other similar commercial and industrial scale businesses decarbonize their energy supply. We are delighted for Telstra to be our first major third-party PPA customer,” said Ark Energy Chairman, Yun Choi.

Telstra Group Executive – Product & Technology, Kim Krogh Andersen, added: “Agreements like this one will help insulate Telstra from fluctuating wholesale electricity prices. Our annual power bill is equivalent to 300,000 household power bills, so signing long-term renewable energy agreements helps us to manage our costs.”