Massive Moorabool wind farm connected to the Victorian grid

The first turbine of the massive 312MW Moorabool wind farm in central-western Victoria is now connected to the state grid and generating electricity, the project’s developer Goldwind Australia said on Thursday.

Goldwind Australia managing director John Titchen said the start of the commissioning phase was a “significant step” for the 104-turbine wind farm, the first half of which was completed late last month.

The huge $370 million project, located around 25km south-east of Ballarat, will, when completed, power around 230,000 average Victorian homes each year – or as state energy minister Lily D’Amborsio has put it, one in 10 homes in the state.

“Construction of the southern section of the Moorabool Wind Farm is continuing to make good progress and is expected to be completed later this year,” Titchen said.

“As part of the commissioning phase that is currently underway on the northern section of the Moorabool Wind Farm, the project is now connected to the Victorian transmission network and is generating electricity.”

Goldwind, which bought the project from WestWind Energy in 2016, had started making progress on the second section of the wind farm, called Moorabool South, in late June and expects to have all 54 turbines of part two completed later this year.

Titchen said on Thursday that, once operational, the project would be one of the largest wind farms in Victoria and would directly employ up to 20 permanent full-time maintenance roles.