Farm brings a windfall

Geraldton Guardian
Wednesday 8/11/2006 Page: 8

A NEW wind farm near Cervantes will have widespread benefits for the Mid West and has injected around $10m into the local area, according to developers.

The 80Mw Emu Downs Wind Farm project, 30km east of Cervantes and 25km west of Badgingarra, will be capable of powering 50,000 homes in the region when it is launched on Friday. The joint development between Stanwell Corporation and Griffin Energy will have a generating capacity of 80MW and a total of 48 turbines standing 68.5m high.

Mid West Development Commission chief executive Steve Douglas said the new wind farm would have benefits not only for the Cervantes- Badgingarra area but for the whole Mid West. Mr Douglas said it would reduce reliance on greenhouse gas-producing energy or power sources and be "an important addition to the power supply". He said Emu Downs, like the Walkaway wind farm, would help create a balance in the South West Interconnected System and less power would be lost through transmission from the state's South-West.

"We lose around 20 per cent transferring power from Collie to this end of the power grid," he said. "So by having generational capacity at other places on the grid, and certainly at the end of the grid, helps overcome that sort of issue.

"It helps to balance out the grid because it's a more even distribution of power ... rather than getting large variations because of the generation at one end (of the grid). " At the height of construction, 110 new local jobs were provided, while seven people will work full time on the project.

Developer information said contractors had collectively injected $10m into the regional economy and $2m had been spent locally through employment wages and service procurement. A project management team had spent around $1.75m in the area by way of support to local businesses.

The Emu Downs Wind Farm was formally approved in July 2005 and construction began in November 2005. In addition to the 48 turbines, each with 1.65MW capacity, the project includes a substation, interconnection to the main 132kV grid, an administration and stores building and a network of access roads. A public carpark and visitor viewing area closely located to the wind farm were recently completed.

Walkaway Wind Farm was opened in August last year, with 54 turbines standing 80m high and producing 90Mw at full capacity. It is capable of powering 60,000 homes. Mr Douglas said the benefits to the region of Emu Downs and Walkaway were comparable.