Project scope
The Waubra Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere with 128 turbines and 192 megawatts capacity, associated access tracks, substations, a terminal station and a maintenance facility contained in an area of 173 square kilometres.
Technology
The turbine towers were produced by Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering and by Haywards Engineering in Tasmania.
Article continues below…
The nacelles and hubs have been manufactured by ACCIONA Windpower in Pamplona, Spain and the blades by Tecsis in Brazil.
The Waubra Wind Farm is monitored remotely from a control room in Melbourne via a fibre optic network which receives real time information from the wind farm. The turbines are remotely accessed and controlled from the control room for the purposes of safety and maximum efficiency.
Power purchase and supply
The ACCIONA Windpower 1.5 MW turbines generate at 12,000 volts. Underground cables feed energy into five substations, in which the voltage is raised from 12 kilovolts (kV) to 66 kilovolts (kV) through the use of transformers, and is then fed through 66 kV overhead lines to a 66 kV/220 kV terminal station, built and operated by SP AusNet.
The terminal station connects the wind farm into the Ballarat-Horsham 220 kV transmission line. Power generated from the project is sold to Origin Energy.
Environmental impact and community engagement
At peak capacity, the Waubra Wind Farm will deliver approximately 650,000 tonnes of CO2 savings or enough green electricity to power the City of Ballarat and the surrounding districts.
An Operations Environmental Management Plan was developed through a process of document review, site inspection and consultation with stakeholders. The environmental standards were identified after consultation with relevant authorities including the Pyrenees Shire Council, Ballarat City Council, Environmental Protection Agency, the North Central Catchment Management Authority and the Country Fire Authority.
Environmental aspects addressed in the plan include water, waste, noise, cultural heritage, native flora and weeds, traffic, earthworks, amenity and rehabilitation.
Technical studies were completed to review the area of interest, identify constraints and to model a possible wind farm layout design. As part of this process, independent consultants were engaged to report on the following:
- Flora and fauna - Cultural heritage - Traffic and transport - Geology and hydrology - Landscape and visual - Socio-economic - Noise - Electromagnetic interference.
The project has a capital value of $450 million and will deliver $1.6 million in direct funding back into the Waubra community through the ACCIONA Energy Community Benefit Fund. The Community Fund will be administered by the local community and go towards funding community projects and activities.
Future outlook
ACCIONA Energy is considering a new wind farm development at Waubra North; 8 kilometres (km) north east of Waubra and 9 km west of Clunes. The proposed area is closest to Evansford and is located on the boundary between the Hepburn Shire and Pyrenees Shire.
The proposed wind farm is at the very early stages of planning and no geographical perimeters have yet been confirmed.
The Waubra North site was selected after preliminary investigations showed that it had the highest wind resource in proximity to Waubra and the least constraints. Work will be undertaken during 2009 to develop the Waubra North proposal including technical studies to review the area of interest, identify constraints and to model a possible wind farm layout design.
Basket is empty.
