Huge wind farm that Angus Taylor rejected marks its official opening

The 227MW Collector wind farm has celebrated its official opening in the New South Wales southern tablelands this week, marking delivery of the largest wind project in Australia for its Thai-based developer, Ratch.

Ratch-Australia announced the official launch of the project on Tuesday, more than a year after Collector was given the all-clear to run at full capacity, using all 54 of its Vestas wind turbines.

Still, it’s a milestone worth marking, particularly considering it faced down some high profile opponents, during a time of rather heavy anti-wind sentiment in Australia – and Australian politics.

One of those opponents was the former Morrison government energy minister Angus Taylor who remains, to this day, the federal member for the seat of Hume, where the Collector wind farm is located, and the Opposition Treasury spokesman.

Taylor, whose anti-wind stance is firmly on the record, is reported to have singled out the Collector project as being part of an “economically unviable” industry that relied on massive subsidies.

In fact, the wind farm, which has been more than 10 years in the making, reached financial close in 2019 with an investment of $180 million into the $360 million project by the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

And while it started out as a merchant project, it has since chalked up two separate offtake deals, with renewables outfit Iberdrola and with supermarket giant Aldi Foods, for the majority of its output.

Needless to say, Taylor did not attend the opening ceremony for Collector – he has not attended any wind farm-related events, except protests, such as the Anti-Wind demonstration organised by broadcaster Alan Jones nearly a decade ago.

CEFC chief Ian Learmonth, who did attend the event, says the Collector wind farm is another shining example of the green bank’s “bridge to contracting” finance strategy.

“It takes brave and innovative investors like Ratch to build out a project like this,” Learmonth said.

“Now they can see the fruits of their labour because nearly 80 per cent of the power has been contracted to Aldi and to Iberdrola Group.”

Aldi Australia’s director of corporate responsibility, Daniel Baker, says Collector wind farm has allowed the supermarket chain to become the first in Australia to have all stores, warehouses and offices powered entirely by renewables.

“It is through partnerships like this one … that we were able to achieve our commitment six months ahead of schedule in 2021,” Baker said.

“Collector Wind Farm is another strong step forward in infrastructure that will help Australia reach its target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, an ambition that Aldi absolutely endorses.”