EnergyAustralia signs PPA for Gullen Range wind farm

EnergyAustralia has signed a Power Purchase Agreement with the China-based developer of a 165.5MW wind farm in NSW, to buy electricity and renewable energy credits generated by the 73-turbine project.

The Australian utility announced its latest PPA for Goldwind Australia’s Gullen Range wind farm on Thursday, hot on the heels of news that Boco Rock – another NSW wind farm EnergyAustralia is supporting through a PPA – has reached financial close.

Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co – China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, and second largest globally – will use a mix of its 1.5MW and 2.5MW permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) turbine technology for the Gullen Range project; the company’s largest outside China and the first in Australia to use Goldwind’s “next generation” 2.5MW turbine.

Gullen Range, located in the NSW Southern Tablelands, is currently under construction, with the first export of electricity generated by the wind farm slated for late 2013.

EnergyAustralia’s group executive manager of energy markets, Mark Collette, said this latest PPA was strong evidence of the utility’s intention to pursue investment in renewable energy in order to meet the its obligations under the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target.

As we wrote in February – when EnergyAustralia reported a 42 per cent slump in profits as a result of the changing dynamics in the sector – the utility has been one of the fiercest opponents of the Renewable Energy Target, arguing that maintaining the fixed target of 41,000GWh would cause damage to its business, and raise costs for customers.

Back then, the company noted in its earnings announcement that the wholesale electricity price continued to be lowered by the build-out of renewables. And last month, EnergyAustralia announced it had sold a 75 per cent majority shareholding in its 111MW Waterloo wind farm in South Australia, as part of a move to “liberate capital to invest in future projects.”

This week, however, EnergyAustralia’s Collette says the company “welcome(s) the opportunity to work alongside other experienced clean energy companies to supply increasing quantities of renewable power to our customers.”

Collette says that with CBD Energy’s Taralga wind farm in NSW and the Morton’s Lane wind farm in Victoria, the two above NSW PPAs represent an approximate 417MW commitment in renewable energy purchases by EnergyAustralia over the last 12 months.