Wind project rejoins planning queue with fewer but much bigger turbines, and a battery

The Twin Creek wind and battery project in South Australia is back before state regulatory authorities, with a new plan for fewer but bigger wind turbines.

Res Australia is returning to the state’s planning agency after a six year gap to alter the project so it can incorporate new technology: 42 turbines each size at 7.2 megawatt (MW) that stand 220m from ground to blade tip.

The redesign will cut another seven machines from the design and add a third more capacity to the wind farm it hopes to build alongside a battery energy storage system.

It had hoped to lodge this application in 2023, according to the developer’s Twin Creek website.

The site is near South Australia’s Barossa Valley, and the wind farm and big battery will be dotted across various parcels of crop and sheep grazing land, north-east of the township of Kapunda, or around 90km north of Adelaide.

In total it will take in land owned by 21 different landowners across three council areas.

The new-look project will be a 270MW wind generator and battery – the current size and capacity of which are as yet unconfirmed – pulled together by 99km of underground cables, two substations, and a 275kV transmission line connecting it all to the local grid.

Construction is pencilled in to start from 2027.

Not stuck in 2019

The Twin Creek project is an example of just how far turbine technology has come in a very short time.

Turbine sizes have more than doubled, as the original plan was for comparatively mini 3.2MW turbines.

Res Australia had wanted to install 90 turbines on the site in order to wring as much revenue out of the site and the technology it had available.

The final 2019 approved design was for a much-reduced 50-turbine, 183MW wind farm with a 50MW/215MWh big battery. A spokesperson for the developer says the battery is now a two hour, 215MWh system.

The major change in turbine yield may have made the project financially viable even at a smaller size.

Old opponents

Consent for that design was hard-won. 

Locals offered strong opposition to the project, with fears ranging from visual impact, potential harm to pygmy blue tongued lizards and southern hairy-nosed wombats, and the risk of turbines creating extra frost while disturbing people’s sleep.

A last-ditch legal bid to fight the wind farm was rejected by the state’s Environment Resources and Development Court earlier in 2019. 

Res Australia did not respond to inquiries about the six-year delay before publication, but in its planning documents said it undertook “further design development in an evolving energy market” in the interim. 

A spokesperson says community feedback hasn’t significantly differed since the proposal was first mooted, but they hope to win locals over with a $15 million shared benefits scheme tailored to community needs in the local areas of Kapunda, Eudunda, and Truro.

Res Australia revived the project in 2023 when it returned to the local community with information sessions. At the time it said on its website the community feedback sessions “were received with mixed sentiment”.

“The community were mostly interested to understand the proposed project amendments and the impact on timing. Concerns related mainly to potential visual and noise impact from the project, traffic during construction on local roads, and impacts to biodiversity.

“Concerns were also raised about potential increased frost risk and the possible impacts of frost on local vineyards,” it said.

The planning documents indicate the developer may be redesigning its community benefits scheme, as well, to better meet local needs.

The previous offer was a $50,000 annual annual fund for 25 years for local community investment. 

The planning documents don’t go into much detail on what a new scheme will look like, but increasingly developers are adopting Engie’s power bill rebate idea as a way to more directly link an electricity generating project to local needs. 

Many moving parts

Res Australia has been workshopping the site since 2012, when it raised its first meteorological monitoring mast.

The turbines and extra equipment will either come from Port Pirie or along the well-travelled route for wind turbine parts from the Port of Adelaide. 

Res Australia estimates that over an 18 month construction period there will be 273 trips per day: three oversized vehicles delivering the enormous turbine and battery parts each day, 145 semi-trailer-sized trucks and the remainder being light vehicles. 

The planning documents also note some 59 native fauna species have been found on the site, including endangered pygmy blue tongued lizards, vulnerable diamond firetail finches, and vulnerable blue-winged parrots.

Four wedge-tail eagle nests were found within the development area as well. 

The project’s original federal environmental approval request stalled in 2018, but the presence of listed species suggests it will need to return to the EPBC with its new design.