Harnessing the weather

Sunday Examiner
Sunday 2/12/2007 Page: 6

One of Tasmania's most innovative projects can be found in the Circular Head area, with Roaring 40s Woolnorth Wind Farm, at Studland Bay. This environmentally-friendly farm has been in existence since March this year, following the completion of the nearby 65MW Bluff Point in 2004. At full capacity, the Studland Bay wind farm will be able to generate 75MW of energy, or enough to power 30,000 households, with an average annual electricity production of 295GWh. This output will be sold directly into the National Electricity Market, and the Renewable Energy Credits will be sold to Aurora Energy.

The Studland Bay site is positioned perfectly to take advantage of the roaring 40s winds that strike Tasmania's West Coast, with the wind speed for the site averaging about 9.5m per second. It will be a world class wind resource and Roaring 40s, the company behind the wind farm, is confident of its capabilities. "It will be a world class wind farm and we are confident that it will work in a similar class to the nearby Bluff Point Wind Farm, which is one of the top three operating wind farms in the world," Roaring 40s spokesman Josh Bradshaw said. "The site was also attractive because it provided relatively ease of access to both major transport and transmission corridors and provided few issues with regard to construction logistics.

Common practice among wind energy developers now is to lease land holdings of local landowners, but in relation to the Woolnorth site, Roaring 40s has bought 3000ha of land from the Van Diemen's Land Company and divided it into separate lots. "Lot one is the site of Bluff Point Wind Farm and lot two is the site of the Studland Bay Wind Farm. To ensure continued use of the site for farming and agricultural purposes, Roaring 40s leases the land back to VDL," Mr Bradshaw said.

As with all wind farm developments in this country, the Studland Bay Wind Farm required environmental approval from local, State and federal authorities. Certain conditions to ensure that environmental biodiversity of the site were protected had to be met before approval was given. Also, any cultural or heritage values were taken into account and had to be managed accordingly. "At its height, the Woolnorth Studland Bay Wind Farm was one of the largest infrastructure projects undertaken in Tasmania, the benefits of which will be realised by the people of the North-West and the State of Tasmania well into the future," Mr Bradshaw said.