As debate rages over Adani's controversial Carmichael coal mine, construction will quietly begin on Australia's largest wind farm project in the same state.

The first sod will be turned on the Coopers Gap Wind Farm, in Queensland’s northern Darling Downs, 250km northwest of Brisbane, on Wednesday morning.

Due to be completed in 2019, the 453-megawatt wind turbine project, located between Dalby and Kingaroy, will produce 1.5 million MW hours of renewable energy annually.

AGL Energy secured environmental approval for the project last year and it is expected to be developed at a cost of $500 million.

Queensland’s mining and resources minister, Anthony Lynham, AGL’s general manager for GM power development Dave Johnson and local mayors will be on hand for the sod-turning.

Construction on Adani’s proposed mega-mine, to be the largest coal mine in the southern hemisphere, was to have been fully under way in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin but was held up by environmental concerns.