The final turbine has been installed at the biggest wind farm to be built in Australia to date, the 1.33 gigawatt (GW) Golden Plains facility in Victoria.
The milestone was announced by turbine supplier Vestas, which said that all 215 of its Enventus V162-6.2 MW turbines had now been erected. The project is expected to deliver around 9 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs when completed.
The Golden Plains wind farm has been built by Portugal-baed TagEnergy and is interesting because not only is it the biggest wind farm in Australia, and the southern hemisphere, it is possibly one of the last brave enough to start construction before landing any long-term off-take agreements.
Australia’s wind industry, and arguably its solar industry too, has been stymied by the inability of many developers to reach financial close and begin construction, largely because they are waiting for long-term offtake agreements, something difficult to obtain in a world where the big utilities are on an effective buyers’ strike.
TagEnergy did give the go-ahead, and found that buyers came to them, including the likes of Snowy Hydro and EnergyAustralia.
The Golden Plains wind farm is still working through the commissioning process for the 577 MW second stage of the project, which will be completed soon now that the final turbine has been installed.
It is currently generating up to 1.1 GW, according to Vestas, which already makes it the biggest operating wind farm in Australia, and by some margin.
Its nearest rival – the 930 MW McIntyre wind farm in Queensland – is still working slowly through its commissioning due turbine problems, which has capped its maximum output till now to around 500 MW, despite starting construction before Golden Plains.
TagEnergy is also building a 150 MW, 600 MWh battery energy storage system at the site, which also has landed a long term contract with Snowy Hydro.
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