Small Victoria wind farm sets stunning new capacity factor record of 65 pct for June

The Kiata wind farm in western Victoria is one of the smallest wind farms in Australia, but there is absolutely no doubt it is also one of the best performing, if not the best, in Australia.

In the month of June, Kiata smashed the all-time record for a single month with a capacity factor of 64.9 per cent, according to data from Rystad Energy.

That capacity factor – which beats most coal fired power stations – beat the previous record set by the Cullerin Range wind farm in NSW in September 2019, and Kiata’s own previous best set in August, 2018.

The Kiata wind farm is located around 50kms west of Horsham, in the west of Victoria. It was built by the pioneering wind energy firm Windlab, which is now majority owned by iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest.

The Kiata wind farm started operations in 2017, reached its full output in 2018, and is now owned by Atmos Renewables, which bought it in 2021.

In the last month Kiata averaged at least 50 per cent capacity factor for every hour of the day, according to Rystad. On Friday, June 16, it produced 722MWh, a capacity factor of 97 per cent for that 24-hour period.

The wind farm has a capacity of just 31MW, a fraction of the size of the gigawatt scale projects now being built and proposed, and features nine Vestas V126 turbines, each ranked at 3.45MW, which were the largest in the country at the time of installation.

In late 2018, Infigen Energy, now part of Spanish giant Iberdrola, signed a five year off take agreement for Kiata. It is not know if this has or will be extended.

See also: Wind to the south, solar to the north: Renewable generation records blown away in June