The tallest wind turbines, complete with the longest blades yet seen in Australia, have arrived in Port Hedland and have started embarking on the 300 km road trip to their new home at Fortescue’s first wind farm in the Pilbara.
The turbines, sent to Australia by Chinese wind maker Envision Energy, will feature 89 metre long blades, twice as long as a Boeing 737, according to Fortescue.
The turbines will also be the tallest in the country, elevated to heights of 188 metres (rotor or hub height) and a blade tip height of 277 metres by a unique “self lifting” tower technology developed by Spain’s Nabrawind, now owned by Fortescue.
The self lifting technology allows for simpler and quicker tower erections, less concrete, and elevates the blades themselves where there is generally more wind.
Fortescue says the 51 turbine blades will be transported along the 300 km route from port to the site of the 132 megawatt (MW) Nullagine wind project in coming weeks. It should be a lot easier to negotiate than the hilly country on the east coast, although a lot of the travel will be on dirt roads.
Envision are also supplying the same 7.8 megawatt turbines – the most powerful to be deployed in Australia – to the Narrogin wind farm south of Perth, which began construction this week after project owner Neoen struck a long term offtake agreement with Synergy.
For Fortescue, the Nullagine wind project will be followed by a bigger wind project at the neighbouring Bonney Downs facility, along with 1.4 GW of solar that is currently being delivered elsewhere in the Pilbara.
Fortescue says it should complete its “green grid” by early 2028, and will then steadily replace its diesel-fuelled mining fleet with electric equipment.
That process is already starting, with excavators already deployed, and tests in the last couple of weeks of 150-tonne water trucks, along with electric graders, dozers and loaders. These will be followed by the replacement of some 300 giant haul trucks, each weighting around 240-tonnes.
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