Italian energy giant to build first wind farm in Australia to supply BHP nickel smelter

Enel Green Power, the renewables subsidiary of Italian energy giant Enel Group, is to build its first Australian wind farm in the country’s west after landing a 12-year supply agreement with BHP.

The construction of the 76MW Flat Rocks wind farm will mean BHP will be have a 100 per cent renewable power source for its Western Australian nickel operations, which are destined to supply EV makers such as Tesla that demand zero carbon supply chains.

BHP says the combination of the Flat Rocks wind farm, near Kojonup, and previously announced contracts with the Merredin solar farm, and the planned Northern Goldfields solar project, would ensure that its WA smelter, nickel refinery and processing operations had a fully renewable power supply.

“BHP supplies high quality nickel to world markets for use in electric vehicle batteries and other growing technologies that will support global decarbonisation,” said BHP Nickel West president Jessica Farrell.

“We are taking great strides in making our operations more sustainable and strengthening BHP’s position as a nickel supplier of choice to global customers.”

It’s also a landmark day for local landowners who formed a group called Moonies Hill Energy that began planning in 2007 and brought in Enel Green Power in 2016, giving Enel an option to buy the first stage, which it has now exercised.

Moonies Hill is now working on planning, permissions and development of the proposed 100MW second stage of the Flat Rock wind farm.

“It’s taken 15 years to get to this point so we are very excited that we are now just month away from the commencement of construction,” Moonies Hill managing director Sarah Rankin said in a statement.

“We’ve got an excellent wind resource at Flat Rocks and I’d be very surprised if the Flat Rocks Wind Farm doesn’t feature in the top 5 in the country in terms of capacity.”

Rankin said the prospects for the second stage looked good because wind farms provide a strong coincidence to peak demand, and offer a complimentary profile to expanding solar generation in the WA energy market.

“The high uptake of roof top solar and improving economics of batteries in the Western Australian grid will require additional wind generated electricity to balance the daytime solar production,” she said.

It also turns out that the local area also has a large Italian population, and is noted for its strong winds that will help deliver a capacity factor of around 50 per cent, or anticipated annual output of 315GWh, and may face fewer constraints in the southern part of the state’s main grid, known as the SWIS.

Enel Green Power’s main investment in Australia has been the 220MW Bungala solar complex, the largest in South Australia. It also built the smaller Cohuna solar farm in Victoria. Across the world, it boasts a portfolio of 54GW of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower.

The Flat Rock wind farm will feature the tallest turbines in the state, with 18 Vestas V150-4.2MW machines with a tip height of 200 metres. The project will begin construction this year and be complete in 2024.

The deal will include a long-term service and maintenance agreement, which will optimise energy production while also providing Enel Green Power with long-term business case certainty.