Danish wind giant Vestas unveils plans for 2.5 GW wind and 4 GWh battery project in NSW

Danish wind energy giant Vestas is seeking approval to build a massive, 2,500 megawatt (2.5GW) wind farm in southern New South Wales that would combine up to 348 turbines and two four-hour big batteries, each with up to 500 megawatts (MW) and 2000 MWh of storage capacity.

The Abercrombie wind farm, proposed for roughly 40km south west of Hay, appeared in the queue for federal environmental approval earlier this week, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Vestas Development A/S, the project development arm of Vestas.

In the referral for assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity (EPBC) Act, Vestas says the currently proposed project area spans landholdings of around 93,420 hectares, less than 3.5% of which would be disturbed by the installation of turbines and other infrastructure.

The referral says the wind turbines and ancillary infrastructure would be installed on the “substantial areas of cleared and/or disturbed agricultural land” that makes up around 25 per cent of the proposed project area, in order to minimise clearing of native vegetation.

“As a result, the disturbance area includes approximately 155 ha of disturbed non-native vegetation that requires limited to no clearing of native. vegetation,” the notice says.

“Both the Disturbance area and the Development corridor have been located to avoid key habitat areas, including woodlands, wetlands and watercourses, to the extent practicable.”

Vestas says it started community and stakeholder consultation on the proposed wind farm in early 2024, including face-to-face meetings with landowners, consultation with local Traditional Owner representatives, correspondence with local and state governments and letters sent to neighbours introducing the project. A community drop-in session was held in Hay in late July.

The Abercrombie Wind Farm is one a several the Danish giant is working up in New South Wales, where the race is on to build enough new renewable energy generation capacity to replace the state’s aging coal power supply.

With Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Vestas is also developing the up to 730MW Winterbourne wind farm, proposed for construction near the town of Walcha in the NSW New England region.

Vestas is also behind the up to 550MW Piambong wind farm, a project proposing to install up to 81 turbines and a 100MW, two hour battery around 20km northwest of Mudgee, in the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone.