Windfarm progress

South Eastern Times
22/11/2007 Page: 7

THE second stage of Babcock and Brown's Lake Bonney Wind Farm of 53 turbines has been completed several months ahead of schedule. Construction team CATCON and other contractors began work along the WoakWine Range midway through last year.

As part of their contract, CATCON had to build access roads to each site as well as a hard stand area to support the cranes which would lift the 80 metre towers, 45 metre blades and nacelles (generators) into place. The erection project was due for completion in February. The first operational stage of Babcock and Brown's Lake Bonney has 46 smaller turbines, while the nearby Canunda Windfarm has 23 turbines, and is run by a separate company International Power. When combined, the 122 windfarms along the range make the project the largest in Australia.

In other windfarm news, the turbines have not been operational for more than a week with a rumoured cost of $100,000 per day. It is understood the temporary suspension may be related to recent work at the Snuggery sub-station. Power generated by the WoakWine Range windfarms is channelled into the national grid via the Snuggery sub-station. There has been a significant amount of upgrading work at this facility over recent months as part of a new high voltage overhead cable link with the Mingbool substation.