AGL Energy Limited and Meridian Energy have entered contracts to construct a 420 megawatt wind farm at Macarthur in Victoria’s south west at a total capital cost of $1 billion. On completion in early 2013, the Macarthur Wind Farm will be the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, and one of the largest wind farms in the world.

The wind farm will be situated near Hamilton, 260 kilometres west of Melbourne.

It will comprise 140 Vestas 3-megawatt wind turbine generators and will be constructed by Vestas and Leighton Contractors. AGL will acquire all of the wind farm’s energy output and renewable energy certificates.

The project was originally planned in 2008 for completion in 2011 but was put on hold in 2009, when AGL managing director Michael Fraser warned that the renewable energy industry was on the brink of collapse due to a lack of investor certainty about the government’s renewable energy target policy. After the passage of new renewable energy target legislation in June, it was announced that the project would go ahead.

The original plan was to install 174 Suzlon wind turbines but the contract now calls for 140 Vestas turbines. Mr Fraser commented that "As a result of utilising Vestas’s new 3.0 MW V112 turbines, we have been able to increase the capacity of the wind farm while reducing the number of towers from 174 to 140. This reduces the environmental footprint of the project and achieves substantial operating cost savings in excess of $30 million over the life of the wind farm.”

(Image: Vestas V112 Turbine from Vestas press release)

REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, has produced its annual Renewables Global Status report. A copy of the report is available here.

Highlghts of the report on 2009 include:

• Investment in new renewable was $US150 billion – up from $US130 billion in 2008
• Globally, nearly 80 GW of renewable capacity was added, including 31 GW of hydro and 48 GW of non-hydro capacity
• Almost half of the new capacity (37 GW) was added in Chin
• More renewable power capacity was added than coal, gas and nuclear power capacity in.both the United States and Europe
• 38 GW of wind power capacity was added with more than a third (13.8 GW) of that being in China. The United States was second, with 10 GW added
• 7 GW of solar PV was added itions with Germany adding more than half (3.8 GW) the global total
• Many countries saw record biomass use. In Sweden, biomass accounted for a larger share of energy supply than oil for the first time
• Major crystalline PV module price declines took place, by 50–60 percent by some estimates, from highs of $3.50 per watt in 2008 to lows approaching $2 per watt
• There was record small-scale solar Pv but the dollar investment totals in utility-scale solar PV declined relative to 2008, partly because of the large drop in the costs of solar PV modules.

Wind Power – World Installed Capacity

Solar PV – World Installed Capacity

AGL Energy plans to fast track its Macarthur wind farm project following the changes to the Renewable Energy Target scheme approved by the Senate. (See Renewable Energy Legislation Before Senate.)

AGL managing director Michael Fraser said it would give industry the certainty to make long-term investment decisions to transform the nation’s energy infrastructure. 

"With our joint venture partner Meridian Energy, AGL now plans to fast track the final approvals for the development of the Macarthur wind farm which, when completed, will be one of the largest wind farms in the southern hemisphere," he said.

A development application for a $275 million wind farm at Paling Yards, near Oberon, has been lodged with the NSW Department of Planning.

Union Fenosa Wind Australia says another company lodged a similar application for the site five years ago but the infrastructure to connect to the power grid was not available then. The company’s engineering manager, Shaq Mohajerani, says it is hoping that a new substation at Crookwell will eneble it to link the wind turbines to the grid. He said that the consultation and assessment processes for the project, as well as the additional substation, are well underway.

The new substation will also accomodate expansion of the Crookwell Wind Farm. Currently, eight turbines generating 600 kilowatts are operating at Crookwell. Phase 2, which is now under construction by Union Fenosa, will have a capacity of 92 megawatts and cost $238 million. Phase is now being planned.

Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation are planning to set up two 1,000 megawatt fossil fuel based power plants in New South Wales because they claim that the State does not have the adequate renewable energy potential.

In fact, NASA estimates put solar readings in New South Wales at 6kw/m²/day which is equal to the solar radiation received in Southern California and similar to Spain. Southern California and Spain are the largest solar power production regions in the world.

The New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment website states that "NSW has an excellent wind resource. Background wind speeds in NSW are comparable to northern Europe, where a large portion of international wind generation is currently installed". Yet, only about 150 megawatts of wind power generation is currently installed or under constrruction in the State.

A geothermal anomaly south of Muswellbrook in the State’s Hunter Valley is believed to have similar potential, although on a smaller scale, for extracting energy from hot dry rocks as South Australia’s Cooper Basin which is regarded as one of the best such sites in the world.

And, of course, the State boasts one of the world’s great hydroelectric schemes in the Snowy Mountains.

Western Australia’s Energy Minister, Peter Collier, has announced that a new $750 million wind farm will be built near Merredin, 260 kilometres east of Perth.

The Collgar Wind Farm will have 111 turbines with a total capacity of 206 megawatts. It is expected to begin supplying power to the grid by August 2011.

The project is a joint venture between the Investec Bank and Windlab Systems. The Western Australian electricity retailer Synergy has contracted to buy the electricity from the wind farm for 15 years.

Plans to build Australia’s largest wind farm have been revived after the Government’s move to revamp its renewable energy target scheme.

AGL Energy’s 174-turbine wind farm planned for Macarthur in western Victoria had been put on hold because the previous version of the legislation promoted domestic solar hot water systems and rooftop solar panels at the expense of large projects. (See www.aussierenewables.com.au/news/)

Following news that the legislation is to be changed, AGL has signed a joint venture agreement with New Zealand’s Meridian Energy to proceed with the $A800 million project.

AGL will take all of the energy output and wind energy certificates from the wind farm which will have 174 Suzlon wind turbines with a total capacity of 365 megawatts. Construction is expected to take about three years.

Beyond Zero Emissions has issued a summary of a report which shows how Australia could use solar and wind power technologies, which are available now, to produce 100 percent of its electricity within 10 years. The full report will be released in coming months.

Australia now gets nearly 80 percent of its electricity from coal with only 1 percent coming from wind power and less than half of 1 percent from solar energy.

The report says that 40 percent of Australia’s electricity could come from wind turbines. Concentrating solar power plants, with molten salt energy storage, could provide 60 percent of total electricity.

Worldwide, some thirty utility-scale concentrating solar power plants are under construction. None of the concentrating solar power plants are in Australia, although Australia has some of the world’s best potential sites. Solar researchers from Melbourne University and Australian National University have already identified 12 sites with a capacity of 3,500 megawatts each.

The report claims that suffiecient concentrating solar power plants could be installed in just four years, from 2011 to 2015, to provide 20 percent of the Australia’s electricity.

The report says that biomass co-firing would be needed to back up solar plants in winter and that new transmission lines between the solar- and wind-intensive areas and population centres would be needed. However, all coal and gas fired power plants could be eliminated and nuclear power would no be needed.

The cost of quitting carbon entirely is estimated at around $36 billion per year – about 3.5 percent of Australia’s annual GDP.

The New South Wales Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, has approved a $190 million wind and solar farm near Scone in the Upper Hunter Valley.

The Kyoto Energy Park will include 34 wind turbines, a mini hydro-electric generator using recycled water, up to 100 hectares of solar panels and a visitor education centre. It will provide enough renewable power for more than 47,000 homes and create the equivalent of 15 full-time jobs.

Despite extensive community consultation and Government assessment of the farm’s noise, flora and fauna and visual impact – resulting in its scaling back and the attachment of 67 conditions to its approval, some local residents continue to protest at its construction. Carmel Lymbury says the Mr Kelly has ignored community concerns about its noise and visual impacts and thoroughbred horse breeder, Mike Thew, says that he fears the giant wind turbines will ruin the rural landscape.

The world’s southernmost wind farm, built by New Zealand’s Meridian Energy, has been opened in Antarctica.

The three turbines will supply about 1 megawatt of electricity to New Zealand’s Scott Base and the American McMurdo Station.

Scott Bennett, project manager with Meridian Energy, says the wind farm will supply about 11% of the power used by the two Antarctic bases and will cut diesel consumption by about 463,000 litres per year.

With only one supply ship a year, the project, which took two years, required meticulous planning. The towers were too big to be shipped in a container and had to be strapped to roof racks fited to an icebreaker.

If the wind farm proves a success it could be followed by others, with solar power generation also being evaluated.

There is one other wind farm in Antarctica, consisting of two turbines installed in 2003 at Australia’s Mawson Base.

Wind turbines above Scott Base
(Public domain photo)