Western Australia’s Great Southern will play host to the state’s largest wind farm, with plans for a 100-turbine facility revealed for the first time. The Ambrosia Wind Farm will sit near Collie, outside the town of Moodiarrup, 245 kilometres south-east of Perth, with construction due to begin next year and completion slated for 2027. Proponents say the 600 megawatt farm would be the most productive on WA’s South West Integrated System (SWIS), the state’s largest electricity grid. “If you were to think that the whole of the [Perth] CBD uses something between 75 to 100 megawatts, we are producing 600-plus megawatts,” Green Wind Renewables spokesman Patrick Ragan said. “It is relatively big — it’s three times larger than the current largest wind turbine farm on the SWIS.” The turbines are expected to be some of the most productive in the country, with a stem height of 150 metres and a blade length of approximately 85 metres. Mr Ragan said each could produce up to 8 megawatts on a windy day, but the final turbine selection would be made at a later date to ensure the latest technology was used. The project will be built on cleared freehold agricultural land, selected due to its access to the SWIS and consistently positive wind test readings. Mr Ragan said all land contracts had been signed and the company would now begin community consultation with neighbours and residents in the region. “We’ve signed binding contracts with them [farmers],” he said. “Now we’re starting to engage with the neighbours to explain, because we can’t go and talk to neighbours until you have a project, and you don’t have a project until you’ve got a happy farmer who signed a contract.” Shire of West Arthur President Neil Morrell said he hoped the community would get investment from the company as part of the project. Cr Morrell said roads and other infrastructure would need upgrades to cater for construction for the wind farm. “The Shire has to get the infrastructure ready for these things to happen,” he said. Project to double state’s wind power Energy analyst Ray Willis said the scale of the project was significant and would fit well with existing and future infrastructure. “It’s going to almost double West Australia’s capacity of wind on the network so that’s a really big project,” Professor Willis said. “It’s not necessarily so big that it’s uncomfortable in the network. “Its location is logical as well — Collie (55km north-west) does have a good wind resource because it’s so far south, you get the winds coming from the west, but you will also get wind coming from the south.” Professor Wills said the speed at which the project was being developed raised questions over the viability of the federal coalition’s unfunded plan to build seven nuclear power plants across Australia, including one in Collie. “Wind can be built very quickly, not quite as fast as solar, but far faster than a gas-fired power station, probably twice as quickly,” he said. “A coal-fired power station, probably three times as quickly and certainly far faster than a nuclear power station, probably five to six times as quick.” Professor Willis said the speed at which renewables were being built outpaced alteratives such as nuclear. “That’s the Achilles heel of any plan to build nuclear, that your return on investment is a decade away, not two years away.”
Subscribe
Login
0 Comments
