$400m Giant Wind Farm

The Adelaide Advertiser, Page: 1
Friday, 2 June 2006

SOUTH Australia will be home to the nation's largest wind farm after last night's announcement of a $400 million expansion of the Lake Bonney wind farm in the South-East. Babcock and Brown Wind Partners said it would spend another $400 million installing 53 more wind turbines, which will generate 159 megawatts of power. This will add to the 46 towers now at the site, near Millicent. In total, the completed wind farm will provide enough energy to power more than 130, 000 homes.

The new turbines, on 80m high towers - just 7m shorter than the Hyatt Regency Hotel building in Adelaide - are expected to be finished by mid-2008. The current 67m high towers caused problems for firefighters in January, when a fire sparked by an electrical fault proved hard to put out because the tops of the towers were out of reach. The fire also triggered an automatic shutdown of the facility during a heatwave, contributing to blackouts which left 63,000 homes without energy. South Australia leads the nation in wind power, with sites also at Starfish Hill, Canunda, Wattle Point and Cathedral Rocks, with another planned for Hallett in the Mid North.

Continued Page 4From Page 1 A spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Pat Conlon said it was another example of South Australia leading the way in wind farm development. "While other states have problems getting wind farms off the ground, this is another example of SA leading the way, " he said. "This state already has 51 per cent of the nation's wind energy and this will further add to our capacity. "Wind Partners chief executive Peter O'Connell said the Lake Bonney wind farm was something to be proud of. "The Lake Bonney wind farms are located on a world class wind site and are being built on a world class scale, " he said. "Australia can be proud of this very significant contribution to the world's renewable energy generating capacity. "

Company chairman Peter Hofbauer said: "The construction of the second stage of the Lake Bonney asset, which enjoys strong community support, will create the largest wind farm in Australia and one of the largest wind farms in the world. "(This development) highlights the huge potential for investment in wind energy in Australia in a global market that is forecast to attract over $173 billion of investment in the five years to 2010. " Construction of the new turbines will start immediately and take about 18 months.

The Lake Bonney development trumps AGL's $263 million, 45 turbine Hallett wind farm, which is expected to be finished by December 2007.