Giant turbines at Goyder South project to begin epic journey inland from September

The first turbines of what will be the biggest wind farm in South Australia will begin next month, and it will take a year to deliver all of the turbine parts to the 412 MW Goyder South Stage 1 wind project.

The 70.5m long blades, as well as the tower sections, machine heads, drive trains, and hubs must travel 344 km over eight hours from Port Adelaide via Jamestown to reach the Porter Lagoon Rd site. 

Wind farm parts must be delivered via circuitous routes because of the size of the blades, which must be transported as one piece, and to avoid roads and bridges that can’t take the weight of the enormous pieces of machinery and vehicles required to transport them. 

Goyder South, owned and developed by French renewable and storage company Neoen, announced late last week that turbine deliveries will start in September and all 75 turbines are expected to be on site in 12 months’ time. 

The first 412 MW stage of the Goyder South project will be the state’s largest and will feature 75 Cypress 5.5-158 turbines from General Electric. Each has a 158m diameter rotor and a rated power output of 5.5 MW.

When this stage is finished it will push the South Australian grid to an average of nearly 80 per cent renewables, from just over 70 per cent in the past 12 months.

But that is just the beginning for the enormous project.

Goyder South has approval for 1200 MW of wind, 600 MW of large scale solar, and battery storage of up to 900 MW and 1800 MWh – making it the biggest hybrid project in Australia already under construction.

Neoen has long term power purchase agreements for the project with the ACT government, and BHP for its Olympic Dam mine, and Flow Power. 

Funding is coming from Neoen equity, and debt from ANZ, HSBC, Mizuho, Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Westpac.

The North stage is still being planned.