Snowtown boost as wind farm gears up: First stage in $200 million construction program

Plains Producer
Wednesday 18/4/2007 Page: 9

Construction has begun on a $200 million wind farm west of Snowtown. The wind farm, which has been described as a "beachhead project" in Australia by New Zealand-based renewable power generator, and retailer TrustPower, comprises 42 wind turbines on the Hummocks and Barunga Ranges. The wind farm will have a capacity of 88MW, enough to power 60,000 average South Australian homes, and could expand to be three times the size.

The first stage of the wind farm will employ up to 170 people during peak construction times, and will require four full-time employees when completed. It is expected to return more than $1 million a year to the Snowtown community on an ongoing basis. "Stage one will use only about one third of the available wind farm site, leaving the opportunity for further stages in the future," said TrustPower chief executive, Keith Tempest.

A total of 130 turbines has been approved for the site, which will be developed progressively according to market demand. "Snowtown is ideally located on the transmission grid and has a superior wind resource," Mr Tempest said. He expects the wind farm to operate at about 45 per cent capacity, compared with the industry average of 30 per cent. Mr Tempest said long term energy and renewable credit agreements were in place which would secure the wind farm's revenue stream for at least the next 10 years. The company is now looking at further opportunities to invest in wind farms in SA and other parts of Australia.

Under an engineer/procure/construct turnkey agreement with Suzlon Energy Australia, 42 Suzlon S88 2.1 MW wind turbines will be located at the Snowtown site. Suzlon will also provide operations and maintenance services to TrustPower once the wind farm is fully commissioned, which will take place progressively from April to November next year. South Australian electricity transmission company ElectraNet will construct a high voltage substation and a short transmission line to connect the new wind farm with the existing ElectraNet state power grid. Final output is expected to be 350 GWh of electricity each year, saving more than 345,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.