(Note: This story has been updated after the transport operator to Uungala deleted their press release from their website and Squadron advised Renew Economy that the deliveries will start “soon”, but not this week).
The first turbine parts for the only wind farm currently under construction in NSW – the 414 megawatt (MW) Uungula project owned by Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy – will begin their long road journey soon.
Transporting all the components of the 69 turbines from the Port of Newcastle to the wind project site near Wellington in the state’s central west – a distance of more than 400 kms – will involve some 700 journeys and will likely take more than a year.
Transport contractor Ares published a press release earlier this week saying the first shipment will arrive on Friday, April 24, with regular daily deliveries scheduled to commence from Tuesday, April 28. But it later deleted the post because, Squadron Energy says, it was wrong. Deliveries will begin “soon”, Squadron says.
According to a traffic management plan published by Squadron Energy last month, the initial deliveries will not include the giant blades of the 6 MW GE Vernova turbines, or the heavy transformers, and will focus on tower components, nacelles and other components.
A whole string of traffic upgrades have had to be completed to allow the deliveries, including an upgrade of a key intersection near the wind farm site, paid for by Squadron, that was completed in early March – seemingly the last piece in the upgrade puzzle.
Squadron Energy said at the time – early March – that the deliveries would commence “in coming months”.
The oversized deliveries will necessitate late night and overnight transport along key routes, including the Golden Highway, Saxa Road, Mitchell Highway, Goolma Road, Twelve Mile Road, usually with police escort and spotters to make sure no light poles, signage and neighbouring trees are damaged.
All told there will be more than 700 oversize deliveries under pilot escort, which will take place over a 12-month period. The first components arrived at the Port of Newcastle by ship in August last year.
“All OSOM vehicles will operate under strict safety and compliance conditions, supported by pilot vehicles and, where required, NSW Police escorts—ensuring safe and efficient delivery across regional road networks,” Ares said in its now deleted statement.
Ares has nearly finished the delivery of 30 new Vestas wind turbines and its components to the Warradarge stage 2 wind farm some 260 kms north of Perth in Western Australia.
Uungala will be the biggest wind farm in NSW – at least for a time – before being overtaken by a number of other planned wind projects, including Squadron’s own Spicers Creek, although none of these bigger projects has yet started construction.
Squadron has already energised the switching station at Uungula ahead of construction, and is putting the finishing touches on the stringing of a new transmission line that will connect it to the main grid. It has also completed the first of the concrete pours for the wind turbine foundations.
NSW is seeking enough renewables capacity to help usher out the last of its remaining ageing coal fired power stations, but despite a dozen or so big battery project completions, and many solar-battery hybrid projects, wind farm developments have struggled to reach construction.
A number of projects have been awarded grid access rights and/or underwriting agreements under the state and federal schemes, but the combination of rising costs, planning approval hurdles, and the slow rollout of new renewable energy zones has hindered progress.
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