Wind farm has plenty of puff

www.themercury.com.au
4 May 2012

YOU just have to look at the trees.. Then, says Hydro Tasmania chief executive Roy Adair, it's easy to see why the Cape Portland property on Tasmania's far north-east tip, is considered one of the best wind farm sites in Australia. "The configuration of the trees and the way that they are heavily leaning to one side", he said.

The 550ha beef, dairy and former woolgrowing property is home to the 56 turbine Musselroe wind farm, now under construction after an eight year gestation. Mr Adair said the delays, as Hydro Tasmania waited for finalisation of the Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target Scheme, had been a blessing. The green light for the $400 million project coincided with Europe's financial debacle-an opportunity for Hydro Tasmania to pull off a great turbine deal, with hard-pressed Danish builder Vestas Wind Systems. The wind turbines will stretch 18km across the Cape Portland property from east to west.

They will be connected to a control building by 60km of underground cable. Mr Adair said buying the property in 2009, rather than working with an existing owner, enabled Hydro Tasmania to put its giant turbines with hub heights of 80m and a 45m blade radius and each producing 3 MW of power where it wanted. He said Hydro Tasmania wasn't troubled by Aboriginal heritage, environmental and ecological dilemmas which had plagued recent Tasmanian developments.

He said there had been several situations where turbines, as well as the 50km transmission line to Derby, had been on a collision course with sensitive sites. "We just moved them", he said. Project manager Justin Cooper said the construction workforce was this month ramping up to a peak of 200, temporarily tripling the size of Gladstone, the nearest town. Premier Lara Giddings, who yesterday visited the site, said 200 jobs over 18 months was a welcome boost for an area hit hard by the forestry downturn.