Shorter turbines, smaller battery, new route for giant blades mulled for wind and storage project

The German-based renewable and storage developer Baywa RE has filed a new, revised application for a proposed wind and storage project in south-west New South Wales, despite winning access rights for only a fraction of the project’s design.

A variation to the company’s federal environmental referral for the Bullawah wind farm shows the German company still wants to build a 815 megawatt (MW) project, albeit down from a previously advised 1,000MW.

The project received grid access rights for just 283 MW of capacity for the project, located on the Hay Plains in the newly created South West Renewable Energy Zone, along with three other projects – two of them also heavily pared back because the REZ doesn’t have enough connection capacity. 

It appears that everything else about the Bullewah project is shrinking too – except the road upgrades needed to handle the over-size transport. 

In its EPBC variation lodged last week, Baywa is flagging it will reduce turbine numbers from 170 to 143, which drops the footprint from just over 1000 hectares to 656 hectares. 

The turbines will also be smaller, down from a 300-metre blade tip to 233 metres. 

The on-site battery is being shrunk from a four hour, 500 megawatt system to a two hour, 359MW device. 

“The reduction in BESS size is based on Bullawah wind farm analysis of necessary storage capacity for the Project, with regard to this section of the South West REZ,” the company said in its request to the EPBC for a project variation. 

These plans to shrink the project, however, were in full swing before news broke that only four projects won grid access rights in the REZ, with Baywa RE putting the amendments to NSW government planners in March. 

Only 3.56 GW of capacity was allocated in the SW REZ, with 1.45 GW going to the Yanco Delta wind project owned by Origin Energy, 832 MW to the Pottinger wind and battery project owned by AGL and Someva Renewables, and 1.01 GW of capacity awarded to the Dinawan wind, solar and battery project owned by Spark Renewables.

New routes from port to place

The amendment put to the NSW government earlier this year suggested the smaller turbine size was limited by the two new route options from two different ports that Baywa RE might use. 

“Bullawah wind farm has subsequently identified a maximum alternate turbine size (being a tip height of up to 233 m, a hub height of up to 148 m and a blade length of up to 80 m) for the purposes of identifying and assessing required road upgrades to the Port to Hay Transport Routes,” the developer’s amended traffic impact assessment for the NSW planning process says. 

“However, due to the extent of renewable energy development proposed within the South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), it is possible that road upgrades to accommodate a larger turbine (with a blade length exceeding 80 m) will be undertaken along some or all of the proposed Port to Hay Routes either by the NSW Government or by a third party developer.”

The NSW government is itself investing $128 million in road upgrades from the Newcastle port to move heavy turbine parts to REZs. 

It will upgrade 19 roads and intersections between the Port of Newcastle and the Hunter and the Central West Orana REZs. 

Baywa RE is now canvassing an extended transport route from the Newcastle port, as well as an alternative from Adelaide, both of which will need road upgrades to handle the very large, very heavy battery and turbine parts. 

Both routes emerged after the NSW transport department said it needed considerable extra information about the original proposed route to decide on what upgrades were needed and the impact on traffic. 

The logistical challenge of transporting blades nearly 80 metres long, and other equipment such as transformers that can weigh hundreds of tonnes, is one of the major headaches for renewable energy developers, requiring careful planning and considerable costs.

And it’s a challenge that creates headlines when things go wrong, as happened in May when a section of a turbine heading to the Wambo wind farm got stuck under a bridge west of Brisbane.

The initial investigation suggested the driver along the well worn over size, over mass route didn’t follow the escort around the bridge.