Final turbine installed at one of Australia’s largest and lowest cost wind farms

The final turbine has been installed at the second stage of the Murra Warra wind farm in Victoria, completing a lengthy construction process for what will be one of the country’s biggest wind projects.

The  440MW Murra Warra project – now fully owned by Partners Group and located near Horsham in western Victoria – has had one of the more interesting construction and connection histories in Australia’s main grid.

It started off in 2017 with a long term off take agreement with Telstra for the 231MW first stage, for what was described at the time as a “stunning low cost” for wind energy, but problems emerged when its wind turbine supplier Senvion collapsed, before being sold to Siemens Gamesa.

For the 208MW second stage, which has a long term contract with the government owned Snowy Hydro, the developers turned to GE and its 5.5MW Cypress 5.5-158 turbines which were, at least for a short while, the biggest to be installed in Australia.

The second stage of the wind project also includes a synchronous condenser, required under the former “do no harm” rules that have now been ditched.

It is currently half way through the commissioning process for the second stage of the project, with 13 of the 38 turbines now generating and expectations of being in full production within three months.

RES, the original developer which retains construction and management rights over the project, said in a statement on Monday that it has completed construction with the erection of the final turbine of Stage II of the 99 turbine, 440MW facility..

It noted construction on the first stage started in 2018, and on the second stage in 2020, generating more than $100 million in economic benefits over the life of the project in jobs and local spend.

“The team rose to the challenge of constructing a wind farm through the pandemic and global supply shortages and it is a credit to them that construction has been completed within target timeframes,” RES head of  construction management Anthony Berzi said.

RES describes itself as the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, with more than 9GW of operational wind, solar and storage assets globally, and more than 3GW of wind and solar in Australia.  It has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and multiple regional locations.

RES is engaged in all technologies: wind, solar and storage and offer development plus construction and asset management services across Australia. To date, RES has managed a portfolio of 3GW of wind and solar assets in Australia.