Colac & Corangamite Extra
Tuesday 19/9/2006, Page: 4
THE new owners of the proposed 116-turbine Mount Gellibrand wind farm near Colac hope to begin construction on the project late next year.
Wind Hydrogen Ltd commercial manager Warwick Pearce said the company hoped to begin generating wind power from the site in 2008 but might not have all 116 proposed turbines operating by then.
The project, which the company has valued at $460 million upon completion, was likely to be done in stages, Mr Pearce said.
Wind Hydrogen announced last week it would acquire the project for an undisclosed sum from German development group Pro Ventum International GmbH, which will continue to have an advisory role on the project's development and will retain a minority interest.
Wind Hydrogen's purchase agreement is its first major foray into the Australian wind industry. While the company is Australian based, it has wind farms in the United Kingdom and development rights over others including one at Woolsthorpe near Warrnambool.
Mr Pearce said the company bought the Mount Gellibrand project because it was building up its portfolio of wind power projects throughout the world. The project was attractive because the site was located close to the electricity grid, had very favourable wind conditions and had encountered very few objections, Mr Pearce said.
The State Government gave planning permission for the wind farm last month. The turbines will be built on the southern and western flanks of Mount Gellibrand and span 2500 hectares across a number of properties.
The farm will be the most powerful in Australia, generating 232 megawatts - that is enough to power 133,450 homes a year.
Wind Hydrogen managing director Richard Pritchard praised Pro Ventum International GmbH for the extensive community consultation process it had undertaken prior to gaining approval for Mount Gellibrand.
"Consultation with the local community and individual landholders was very rigorous and revealed widespread support for the project. All parties now look forward to working towards a successful completion of the project," Mr Pritchard said.
As well as expertise in the design, financing and management of wind projects, Wind Hydrogen also holds international patent rights over complementary hydrogen combustion technology which it said had the potential to overcome the issue of variable output from wind farms.
The company said the technology combined electrolysis and hydrogen combustion to provide a method to store and release energy generated from wind turbines as required. When wind levels are high, excess output from the turbines is used to electrolyse water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The hydrogen can then be liquefied or stored under pressure indefinitely. Mr Pearce said the technology would be used at wind farms at Scotland "because that is where expertise is". He said it would be "a few years" before it was implemented at Mount Gellibrand.
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