Tilt approves $560m wind farm in Victoria, signs up major customer

The board of listed company Tilt Renewables has given the go ahead for the $560 million Dundonnell wind farm in Victoria, after the company landed a major 15-year contract with Snowy Hydro for half the output of the 336MW facility.

Tilt announced on Wednesday, at the release of its interim results, that it will now go ahead with locking in finance – including through a $260 million equity raise – and will begin construction of the project early next year and complete it by the end of 2019.

The Dundonnell wind farm will be one of the biggest in the state, and was one of three wind and three solar farms that won a contract with the Victoria government in the largest tender for renewable energy in the country.

That government contract only accounted for 37 per cent of the wind farm’s proposed output, but Tilt on Thursday confirmed it had signed a 15-year contract for half the output with Snowy Hydro, as part of its package of 888MW of “firm” wind and solar well below the price of fossil fuels and current wholesale prices.

Tilt is also working on a number of other significant projects in Australia, including the addition of a 40MW solar farm and a 20MW battery to its Snowtown wind complex in South Australia; the Waddi project in W.A. that could combine 105MW of wind and 40MW of solar; and the Highbury pumped hydro project in an old quarry in the Adelaide foothills.

It has a further three solar projects and a further five wind projects also in the development pipeline

Tilt says that the Dundonnell wind farm will feature 80 Vestas V150-4.2MW turbines, which it expects will deliver a capacity factor of around 42 per cent. Its recently opened 54MW Salt Creek wind farm had delivered a better than expected capacity factor of 48 per cent from July to September.