Massive Golden Plains wind farm snags a second PPA

The second power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed for the massive Golden Plains Wind Farm, which is set to be Australia’s largest at 1,300MW when both phases are completed.

Portuguese clean energy company TagEnergy announced today that it has signed a second PPA for the Golden Plains Wind Farm. Digital infrastructure company Equinix will take 20% of the energy and green certificates (LGCs) generated from the 756MW first stage of the mega project.

TagEnergy had already signed a first PPA with federal government-owned gentailer Snowy Hydro for 40% of the energy and LGCs from Golden Plains Wind Farm – East.

Construction is already underway at the project, with the turning of the first sod in April 2023 followed quickly after by the installation of the first turbine. The first turbine blades arrived in Geelong Port in September – 122 turbine blades stacked nose to tail.

Located in the Golden Plains Shire immediately west of Geelong, the Golden Plains Wind Farm is being built in two phases – East and West.

The 756MW first stage is expected to begin producing energy in the first quarter of 2025. The second stage, Golden Plains Wind Farm – West, is expected to begin construction this year.

Andrew Riggs, the managing partner for Australia with TagEnergy, crowed about the project’s “ability to progressively contract energy production during construction and operation”, saying that it “underscores the success of TagEnergy’s investment approach that saw it achieve financial close on a merchant basis in late 2022 without the need for PPAs.”

“The significant interest in Golden Plains Wind Farm from major industry players reflects the quality and location of our project, and their confidence in our ability to deliver large-scale renewables projects,” said Rigg.

“We’re proud to enter Golden Plains’ second, significant PPA with Equinix. We look forward to supporting them to meet their global 100% renewables target, as we work to drive the energy transition and ensure energy security for future generations.”

TagEnergy says that it is also continuing to negotiate further PPAs as part of its strategy of progressively contracting the project’s energy production during construction and operation.

This also mark’s Equinix’s first long-term PPA in the Asia Pacific region and will become operational at the beginning of 2029. Power secured from Golden Plains will help Equinix achieve renewable energy coverage of its 17 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres located across Australia.

“This first PPA in Asia-Pacific is a huge milestone for Equinix,” said Guy Danskine, Equinix managing director for Australia.

“It underscores our long-standing commitment to actively and meaningfully achieve Equinix’s global sustainability targets to drive positive change and foster a more sustainable future for data centres.

“Equally as important, we are helping our customers and partners in Australia meet their sustainability goals for their deployments in our IBX data centres across the country.”