Photo of the Day: Biggest wind turbine blades arrive in Australia

The first of the turbine blades for the 175MW White Rock Wind Farm in NSW have been shipped to Australia, marking the arrival of the country’s longest wind turbine blades – at nearly 60 metres each – for what will be its biggest wind farm.

Pictured in the images below, the shipment of turbine blades arrived in the Port of Newcastle on the weekend, marking yet another milestone for the $400 million wind farm, which is being built in Glen Innes after years stuck in development limbo.

The 59.5m long blades were made for Goldwind by Sinomatech Wind Power Blade Company and, according to Goldwind Australia managing director John Titchen, will allow each turbine to harness more wind energy.

As we have noted here before, White Rock was the first major wind project to be approved after the passage of the new RET, since which time its Chinese owners, Goldwind, sold a 75 per cent share in the project to fellow Chinese firm CECEP Wind-Power Corporation (CECWPC) – a deal that enabled construction to proceed.

Sod was turned at the Glen Innes site in May, at which time even Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce got behind a shovel, declaring the project a driver of innovation and creator of “the jobs of the future.”

“This and other clean energy projects proposed for the region will ensure the New England is a major player in the field …and clean energy is essential to meet our emissions reduction targets,” Joyce said at the time.

The first stage of construction will install 70 2.5MW turbines, although planning approval has been granted for 119 in total, which will be constructed in stages. Once complete, it will be NSW’s largest wind farm.