EnergyAustralia signs landmark deal to buy nearly half the output from Golden Plains stage 2 wind farm

EnergyAustralia has signed up to buy around 40 per cent of the output from stage two of the massive Golden Plains wind farm near Rokewood, in Victoria, in what is being described as a landmark Power Purchase Agreement for the big-three gen-tailer.

EnergyAustralia announced the 10-year deal with the wind farm’s owner, TagEnergy, on Monday, underpinning construction of the 577MW Golden Plains – West, which got underway in June, around 60 km north-west of Geelong.

Golden Plains Wind Farm Stage 1, at 756MW, is expected to start producing energy in the first quarter of 2025, with Stage 2 to follow in mid-2027. The stage 1 project, also known as Golden Plains – East is owned by TagEnergy (85%) and Ingka Group (15%).

Once fully operational, the two projects combined will make up the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, totaling more than 1.3GW and supplying 9% of Victoria’s energy, or enough to power more than 750,000 homes.

“The future of our business will focus on orchestrating a diverse portfolio of energy assets, across wind, solar, pumped hydro, batteries and gas, as the industry transitions away from coal,” said EnergyAustralia trading and transition executive Ross Edwards on Monday.

“The agreement with TagEnergy, together with the 350MW/1400MWh Wooreen battery to be built in the Latrobe Valley, are strategic projects driven by EnergyAustralia to deliver additional renewable energy and capacity for Victoria as our Yallourn coal-fired power station closes in 2028.

“We are actively investing in a range of other flexible capacity initiatives to enable secure, affordable and reliable electricity for our customers,” Edwards said.

“We have recently contracted for virtual storage with Akaysha Energy, and we are progressing the development of the Mt Piper and Hallett battery energy storage systems, and the Lake Lyell Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project at Lithgow.”

For TagEnergy, the deal is a welcome endorsement for the wind farm, which recently attracted the wrong sort of attention when turbine blade parts from turbines at the stage one of the project.

Vestas, the turbine supplier and installer for the project confirmed, at the time, that the parts in question were serrated trailing edges, which use a sawtooth design to improve airflow over the wind turbine blades and reduce the noise they make when spinning.

Investigations into the cause of the incident, in which no one was hurt, are underway.

“This is the first PPA for Stage 2 of our mega-project that is accelerating the energy transition to help the world reach net-zero carbon emissions sooner,” said Andrew Riggs, TagEnergy managing partner, Australia.

“It continues the success and momentum of our innovative investment approach and contracting strategy from Stage 1 – achieving financial close without the need for PPAs and progressively contracting energy production during construction and operation.

“We look forward to delivering renewable energy to support EnergyAustralia to achieve the decarbonisation of its generation portfolio and help power more Victorian homes and small businesses from renewable sources,” said Riggs.