Huge Dundonnell wind farm powers past 100MW-mark in Victoria

Tilt Renewables’ massive Dundonnell wind farm in Victoria remains on track to deliver its full 336MW capacity well before the end of 2020, after powering up to a generation output of 113MW last week.

The wind farm – one of few large-scale renewable energy projects to connect to the National Electricity Market under its original schedule – began sending power to the grid in March, from its site north-east of Mortlake.

At that time, it was operating at an initial “hold point” of 5MW – effectively running a single turbine – for testing and commissioning, with the aim of upgrading to a 100MW hold point in a few weeks, and then to full capacity by the end of the calendar-year Q3.

Tilt confirmed it had passed the 100MW output milestone on LinkedIn mid-way through last week, alongside the video below, showing several of the project’s Vestas turbines spinning in the wind.

“Our Dundonnell Wind Farm is now exporting up to 113MW (out of 336MW total capacity) of clean, renewable electricity to the grid,” the post said.

“As the largest project within the Victorian government’s VRET initiative, we are proud to be contributing to the VRET targets of 40% by 2025 and 50% by 2030.”

Tilt partnered with Vestas for the supply of turbines and construction of the wind farm under a full Engineer, Procure and Construct (EPC) contract. All of the turbines have been installed at the project.

Earlier this month, Tilt signed up retailing giant Aldi Foods to take some of the output of Dundonnell, in a 10-year power purchase agreement that marked its first corporate PPA – that is, with a corporate end-user rather than a government entity or retailer.

Tilt had previously signed a “support agreement” with the Victoria state government as part of Victoria’s Renewable Energy Auction scheme, as well as a long‐term PPA with Snowy Hydro. The deal with Aldi takes the percentage of output under contract to 93 per cent.

“We are excited to have established our first corporate PPA with a partner as iconic as Aldi,” said Tilt chief executive Deion Campbell, at the time.