A trend of MacIntyre Wind Farm daily stats, over more than 2 years

MacIntyre Wind Farm, a 890 MW facility in Queensland's south-east, registered with the grid in August 2024 but has achieved only 641 MW output to date, nearly two years into operation. The farm was originally due to complete in late 2024, then delayed after a turbine blade break in December 2024 forced replacement of equipment on dozens of Nordex units. It is not now expected to finish until mid 2027. Last week, on 28 September 2026, it reached its peak availability of 666 MW and peak output of 641 MW, an availability factor of only 75 percent of nameplate capacity at that point in its operational life.

Where this fits

MacIntyre is a textbook case of the hidden costs in renewable deployment. The project has suffered construction delays, equipment failure, and now operates well below its rated capacity. These are not one-off events: they are built into the whole-system cost of a renewables-heavy grid, where firm dispatchable power must back up underperformance, and transmission must be oversized to catch peak output on the rare days it arrives. The farm's slow ramp-up and persistent availability shortfall add to the firming and grid-strength burden that falls on fossil gas and, if deployed, firm low-carbon alternatives.

What it means

Australia is betting the transition on assets that take longer to build, underperform their nameplate, and require constant reserve capacity standing by. Every month MacIntyre underruns its capacity is a month a gas plant runs longer, or a month a firm alternative like nuclear could have been displacing emissions. The grid is being made reliable through gas, not renewables.