A renewable energy park developer will write down up to $20 million from its half-share of a major investment following months of problems connecting the facility to the power grid.

Key points: The throttled Kennedy Energy Park combines 12 wind turbines, 55,000 solar panels, and 4MW hours of battery storage, all designed to power 35,000 homes

The throttled Kennedy Energy Park combines 12 wind turbines, 55,000 solar panels, and 4MW hours of battery storage, all designed to power 35,000 homes A professor of engineering at ANU says authorising new transmission lines was slow and antiquated right across Australian states

A professor of engineering at ANU says authorising new transmission lines was slow and antiquated right across Australian states He says without that investment "we're stuck with old, unreliable power stations that frequently go offline"

Canberra-based company Windlab told the ASX it was planning to downgrade the value of its stake in north Queensland's Kennedy Energy Park.

The Australia-first facility combines 12 wind turbines, 55,000 solar panels, and four megawatt hours of battery storage, all designed to power 35,000 homes.

Located east of the town of Hughenden the project was completed in early 2019, but problems receiving Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) standards mean it has generated a fraction of its capacity.

The ASX statement said independent advice would be sought on a final figure but indicated the loss to the carrying value of the investment would be $10 to $20 million dollars.

Trading in Windlab shares are currently suspended as investor Federation Asset Management is negotiating to buy the company's outstanding stock.

A legal dispute with contractors Vestas Wind Systems and Quanta Services over the connectivity delays has been paused until mid-March, with parties agreeing to try to resolve the claims.

The renewable energy park is capable of producing 58 megawatts of power in conjunction with four megawatt hours of battery storage. ( ABC North Queensland: Tom Edwards )

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said it was unable to comment on the application process for companies awaiting approval to export power to the national electricity market.

"In regards to Kennedy Energy Park, AEMO has been working closely with the WindLab, the original equipment manufacturer, and Energy Queensland to ensure that the agreed performance standards have been met prior to approvals," a spokesman said.

"AEMO's core responsibility is power system security, which includes the safe integration of all new generation into the broader power transmission system."

The spokesman said AEMO had noticed a spike in remote regions hosting electricity generators and integrating such capacity to the grid could be problematic.

"There is a high interest in renewable connections ... and these are increasingly requiring detailed technical assessments to confirm ability to safely operate without adversely impacting power system stability."

Poor planning to blame

Researcher Andrew Blakers contributed to the analysis of potential sites for expanding renewable energy worldwide and has developed solar energy technology.

The professor of engineering at the Australian National University said governments had known about the problem for at least two years.

"There's been a disastrous and amazing lack of forethought by people who run the national electricity market," he said.

"Blind Freddy can see that there's a lot of solar and wind coming in and it's not being built on the top of coal power stations.

"Therefore you'll need extra transmission. It's like building new suburbs but not bothering to put any new roads in."

Despite a rapid expansion of renewable power in recent years, Professor Blakers said authorising new transmission lines was slow and antiquated right across Australian states.

"Northwest Victoria, there's huge curtailment of solar farms because of lack of transmission," he said.

"The method of authorising construction of new transmission in the national electricity market suits a coal power station and doesn't suit solar and wind.

"It's too slow. The time scale is right for a coal station that takes seven years to build, [that's] totally wrong for solar and wind."

Professor Blakers said Government investment in new powerlines to connect energy-rich regions with population centres was simple.

"It's basically nominating, with the help of the states, two, three, four renewable energy zones in each state and rapidly approving multi-gigawatt powerlines to get the electricity to cities," he said.

Regions with enormous wind, solar and pumped hydro potential could be developed with adequate power lines to southern markets. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

Long-term power woes

The ANU academic said a reduction of investment in new solar and wind farms would take place without swift government action.

"The threat is that we won't be building a lot more solar and wind. That means we're stuck with old, unreliable power stations that frequently go offline," Professor Blakers said.

He added that Australia was a world leader, commissioning an additional 22 gigawatts of wind and solar between 2018-21 at a rate three to four times faster than other developed nations.

"It's now causing emissions to decline," he said.

"To get to net zero [emissions] in 2050 we just have to double that. Instead of six gigawatts we need to go to about 13 gigawatts a year.

"We trebled it from 2017 through to 2019, we need to double it again, then we're on road to zero emissions by 2050. It's not very hard."