Last turbine goes up as major wind farm completes expansion to become biggest in state

The last of the 30 additional turbines at the Warradarge wind farm in Western Australia has been erected, only six months after the first four in the expansion project were installed. 

The $400 million expansion project to the now-283 megawatt (MW) wind farm has happened on time, and the 30 new additions will start operating later this year, developer Bright Energy Investments says. 

The Vestas turbines are all the same size as those in stage one with a hub height of 84 metres and rotor diameter of 136m.

The new wind turbines bring the total number of machines on the site, near Eneabba, to 81 and once operational it will be the largest wind farm in the state. 

Currently, the Rest Super-owned Collgar wind farm holds that gong with 222 MW capacity, according to project tracker Renewmap.

The Warradarge project is owned by Bright Energy Investments, a joint venture owned by Potentia Energy and state-owned Synergy.

“Warradarge wind farm already sets the benchmark for what can be achieved in project design and management,”  Potentia Energy CEO Werther Esposito said in a statement. 

“This is a milestone not just for Western Australia, but for the entire nation’s transition.”

The expansion from 180 MW was first revealed last year.

The expansion was part-funded by the state government with a $30 million “commitment”, of which half was to directly offset the drop in performance caused by construction taking place in between the operating turbines, a WA estimates committee heard in July last year. 

And while the enlarged wind farm will be the state’s largest, other projects have planning approvals in place which will pip it in size. 

The 489 MW Parron wind project to the south of Warradarge is currently amending its planning approval to cut one turbine from the plans for 79 machines.

Bright Energy’s 1000 MW Tathra has planning approval as does Neoen’s Yathroo project, all of which are on the same transmission line heading north from Perth.

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