Vestas lands big wind turbine contract in Australia, most likely Port Augusta

International wind turbine manufacturer and developer Vestas appears to have landed the supply contract for the huge 320MW wind-solar hybrid project at Port Augusta in South Australia that is being built by Spanish energy giant Iberdrola and DP Energy.

The Port Augusta Renewable Energy Hub will combine 210MW of wind energy and 110MW of solar, and will be the biggest hybrid wind-solar project in Australia when completed, but will likely only be the first of many such hybrids planned for South Australia, particularly after a new transmission line is built to NSW.

Vestas issued a short statement overnight saying that it had received an order for a 210MW project in Australia that includes the supply and installation of 50 of its V150-4.2 MW turbines, as well as a ten-year management service agreement.

“Commissioning of the turbines is scheduled to commence between the third and fourth quarter of 2021,” it said. But it added: “The project and customer names are undisclosed.”

It was one of a number of turbine contracts announced by Vestas overnight – in an end-of-quarter rush – in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Only the Australian customer was not identified. Vestas did not respond to further queries, and neither did the Port Augusta partners.

But Port Augusta stands out as the most likely project. The 210MW wind component of the Port Augusta project is the only one that fits the scale, and the proposed timeline outlined by Vestas.

The go-ahead for the Port Augusta project, near the site of the state’s last coal fired generator, closed in 2016, and not far from the new Bungala solar projects and Lincoln Gap wind project, was announced earlier this year after DP Energy announced that Iberdrola had come on board and would finance the project.

The Bilbao-based Iberdrola said it had developed a 650MW pipeline in Australia after “spending several years studying opportunities there,” and the broader Asia-Pacific region and saw “tremendous potential” for growth in Australia.

Since then, it has launched an $864 million bid for the listed renewable energy developer Infigen Energy, which owns wind farms in South Australia, Victoria and NSW, as well as the Lake Bonney big battery in South Australia. It is now locked in a bidding war for that company with a consortium led by UPC Renewables.