Two major wind farms power up in Victoria, adding 300MW new renewables capacity

Two new wind farms have been officially launched in Victoria this week, together capable of generating power equivalent to the needs of 208,000 homes across the state and bringing its cumulative wind energy capacity up over 4.7GW.

Parliamentary secretary for climate action Sheena Watt was on hand at both the 218MW Ryan Corner wind farm and the 97MW Hawkesdale wind farm to officially open the wind farms for operation.

Both projects are located north of Port Fairy in the south-west of Victoria and were developed by Global Power Generation Australia, which has created a community engagement and benefit sharing plan for each project which will provide updates as well as share benefits from the projects.

Ryan Corner Wind Farm is of particular interest, emerging as one of the largest wind farms in the state with a total of 52 turbines – enough to power the equivalent of 140,000 homes.

“Ryan Corner Wind Farm and Hawkesdale Wind Farm will strengthen our grid with more reliable, renewable and affordable energy while helping us to take the critical action necessary to limit climate change,” said Sheena Watt.

Meanwhile, Hawkesdale Wind Farm, which has been in commercial operation since the end of August, has an agreement with global ecommerce and cloud computing giant Amazon for the supply of power for its local corporate offices, fulfilment centres, and data centres.

The power purchase agreement was signed back at the end of 2020.

“With more than 4.7 gigawatts of wind energy operating across 42 projects, and a further nine either under construction or approved for construction, we have created the foundations that secures Victoria’s energy future,” added Lily D’Ambrosio, Victorian minister for energy and resources.