Enel Green Power Australia, a subsidiary of Italian energy company Enel, has agreed to acquire the 1GW Julia Creek renewables project in Australia from QEM.

The project is located next to QEM's flagship Julia Creek vanadium and oil shale project in north-west Queensland.

It will generate 1GW of power through a combination of wind and solar energy.

Enel will make an upfront payment of A$3m along with two contingent milestone payments totalling A$4m and a further contingent milestone payment after reaching a final investment decision.

QEM will also receive revenue-based royalty payments of between 1% and 2% during the project’s operations.

The company will be supplied with 25MW to power the mining operations under a ten-year power purchase agreement.

Enel will also acquire more than 18 months of wind and solar data, and intellectual property related to engineering, environmental, geotechnical, flood plain and other project-related studies.

The data was collected to support a renewable power generation optimisation study.

QEM has completed the study after installing monitoring equipment on-site and by gathering more than a year's worth of live data crucial for the project's advancement.

Enel Green Power Australia CEO Werther Esposito stated: “We are incredibly pleased to be working in partnership with QEM to deliver the Julia Creek renewables project.

“With outstanding wind and solar resource, the proposed project has the potential to be one of Queensland’s largest renewable energy projects, targeting a significant contribution to achieving Queensland’s renewable energy targets of 70% renewable energy by 2032, and 80% by 2035.”

In May 2023, QEM received several non-binding offers for the renewables project from international developers.

By July, the company had narrowed down the list of potential developers to three: including ACCIONA Energía, Enel Green Power, and a joint venture between Origin Energy and Energy Estate.