New giants put power in perspective

Launceston Examiner
Sunday 22/10/2006, Page: 4

$175m Woolnorth wind farm is taking shape on the far North-West Coast

THE GIANTS of Australia's wind energy industry make a person feel very small. Stretching up 135m from base to tip, the V90 turbine tower is the biggest in Australia, a massive structure that weighs in at 400 tonnes when complete.

Twenty-five towers are being erected at Studland Bay to complete the second stage of Roaring 40s' Woolnorth wind farm.

And early next year the turbines will begin to generate electricity - enough to provide power to 60,000 homes.

Five are now standing. The components may be massive, but the job of putting a tower together is a delicate one. Men working high in the air to connect the tower's three sections together look like ants on a lollipop stick as a crane with a 115m jib delicately lifts the pieces into position.

As you crane your neck to see the rotor blades at the top of a completed tower, it appears to be moving in the stiff breeze. "That is not an illusion," project manager Michael Gilmore said on Thursday as he watched a two-year construction job come to fruition.

"The tower is actually swaying, it is designed to. A rigid structure is not as strong as a pliable one." The V90 turbine towers are at the cutting edge of the world's evolving wind energy industry.

The nacelle at the top of a tower moves 360 degrees as it chases the wind and in optimum conditions the rotor revolves 16 times a minute. "It tries to suck wind out of a calm day and shed it on windy days," Mr Gilmore said.

This kind of technology does not come cheap. Roaring 40s has outlaid $175 million building its Woolnorth wind farm.

The 90m-high towers are made in Northern Tasmania by Haywards but the rest of the turbine components are shipped from Denmark, unloaded in Burnie and trucked to Woolnorth.

To the outsider, the turbine components lying prone ready for assembly look like pieces in a very expensive Lego set. It takes only a few minutes for the tower pieces to be hoisted into the air and bolted into position.

"The crew inside the towers instruct the crane driver on position by radio. The crane lifts the piece into position and the men match up the bolt holes," Mr Gilmore said.

Mr Gilmore said all 25 turbines should be up and adding power to the Tasmanian grid by early next year. "There has been a lot of talk about global warming but we are doing something about it. I find it personally rewarding to be involved." Mr Gilmore said.