Thursday, 6 July 2006
The Woakwine Ranges overlooking Lake Bonney are again alive with the sound of heavy machinery with work having begun on stage two of the Babcock and Brown Lake Bonney Wind Farm. The stage involves the construction of another 53 turbines and the investment of another $400 million by the project proponents. Mt. Gambier Earthmovers have been in the area for the last two weeks constructing roads to the sites on 12 properties along a 10 kilometre corridor to the south of the existing wind mills.The sites are all in the Wattle Range Council area. Work on the footings for the first towers began late last week, and these will begin arriving in over the coming months from Portland. The nacelles (turbines) and blades will once again come from the Danish company, Vestas Wind Systems, and will begin to arrive in Australia in October. The latest wind mills will be be larger than those of stage one and the nacelles will boast state-of-the art technology.
The blades will be 12 metres longer (45 metres) and the towers 13m. higher, increasing to 80m. Known as the V90 models, each turbine will be capable of producing three megawatts of electricity, compared to the 1.75MW of the present units.
Each will be hooked to the present Babcock and Brown sub-station sited in the middle of the stage one towers. To handle the extra power another transformer will have to be installed on the site. The first stage consisted of 46 wind mills and was opened in September, 2004, while the current project is expected to be completed in March, 2008. However, this will not be the conclusion of B&B's investment in the region as their spokesman, Miles George said his company was still considering a third stage involving five to 10 turbines to the north of the present mind mills.
"This is still a fair way down the track. We'll consider this when the second stage is finished," he said.
Footnote: International Power (Canunda Wind Farm) also has 23 turbines along the Woakwine Range.
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