Australia’s most powerful turbines unveiled as fourth wind farm reaches financial close in Xmas flurry

The most powerful wind turbines yet to be seen in Australia have been announced for the Palmer wind project in South Australia, the fourth wind farm to reach financial close in a flurry of drought-breaking deals at the end of 2025.

The 288 megawatt (MW) Palmer wind project will be built around 70 kms east of Adelaide, on farming land that will continue to host grazing activities, and will be one of a number of new projects that will propel South Australia towards its world-leading target of 100 per cent “net” renewables by the end of 2027.

The Palmer wind project had been tipped to be the first to break a 12-month wind financing drought in Australia that had raised doubts about the country’s ability to reach its ambitious target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

But in the end Palmer was beaten to the punch by Tilt’s own 108 MW Waddi wind project in Western Australia, Aula Energy’s 257 MW Carmody Hill project in South Australia, and the SEC’s newly purchased 205 MW Delburn project in Victoria. Those three deals were announced in the week before Christmas.

With Palmer, that makes around 850 MW of new wind capacity reaching financial close in the last weeks of 2025, adding to Synergy’s 105 MW King Rocks wind project in W.A. and the 103 MW expansion of the Warradarge wind project in the same state that both began construction in the second half of 2025.

Renew Economy understands the financing for Palmer was sealed on New Year’s Eve, but only announced late last week. Vestas publicly announced an unnamed 288 MW Australian order on December 31, and last Thursday confirmed it would deliver 40 of its V172-7.2 MW turbines to the Palmer project.

Vestas says the turbines for Palmer will be the most powerful in Australia once operational, although they may be pipped by the 7.8 MW Envision turbines planned by Fortescue for the first stage of its massive East Pilbara renewable hub in the Pilbara.

The Vestas turbines will have a hub height of 126 metes and a 172m rotor dimension. Vestas says the wind turbines repay the energy needed for manufacturing in less than 7 months and deliver a 34-times return over the life time of the project.

“This is a huge milestone for our company and is the second wind farm project we’ve given the greenlight to in the last few weeks,” Tilt CEO Anthony Fowler said in a statement.

“It is a win for South Australia, which is leading Australia in the renewable energy transition,” he added. South Australia currently has a wind and solar share of around 75 per cent and is aiming to reach a world-first 100 per cent “net” renewables by the end of next year.

Fowler also said neighbours, local communities, and First Nations people who stand to receive more than $13 million in community benefits over the course of the project, which has been on the drawing board for more than a decade and has undergone multiple changes to reduce its environmental and community impacts.

The most important of these is the increase in the size of the turbines, which has allowed the number of turbines to be slashed from the original 103 to 40, while still generating the same amount of green energy

“We see Palmer as a great location because the wind resource is strong and consistent, it’s close to existing electricity transmission and is on cleared farmland so grazing can co-exist with a wind farm” Fowler said.

The Palmer wind project is backed by a Capacity Investment Scheme Agreement with the Commonwealth and is supported by a long-term Power Purchase Agreement with AGL that was announced last year.

The facility will be built by principal contractor BMD, with construction set to start in the middle of 2026, and turbine deliveries due in the first quarter of 2027. It should be commissioned later in 2027, helping the state meet its 100 per cent net renewables target.

Vestas is also supplying the Waddi wind project in W.A, albeit with smaller 6 MW turbines, and is favoured to provide the turbines for the company’s next big project, the gigawatt-scale Liverpool Range wind project in NSW.

“Palmer Wind Farm will bring Australia its first V172-7.2 MW wind turbines, setting a new benchmark in wind technology and powering a cleaner, more secure, and independent energy future,” Danny Nielsen, the country head for Vestas in Australia & New Zealand, said in a statement.

If you would like to join more than 28,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.