The largest wind farm in southern hemisphere will be created at Macarthur 260 kilometres west of Melbourne in south west Victoria. It will contain 140 wind turbine generators and be constructed by a Vestas/Leighton Contractors consortium. AGL Energy Limited and Meridian Energy announced they had entered contracts to construct a 420- megawatt wind farm at a total capital cost of $1 billion on completion in early 2013.
The site consists of 140 Vestas turbines and has the capacity to power more than 220,000 homes. The development would help to cut carbon emissions by more than 1.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, equivalent to taking more than 420,000 cars off the road, according to AGL.
AGL chief executive Michael Fraser addressed the project as the “most ambitious” renewable project in Australia.
“The joint venture between AGL and Meridian combines the considerable experience and complementary skill sets of the largest renewable developers in Australia and New Zealand,” he said. “I have great confidence the partnership will deliver significant benefits for both parties.”
AGL and Meridian will fund 50 percent of the capital cost of constructing the wind farm, while AGL will also receive all of the wind farm’s energy output and renewable energy certificates.
About 400 direct jobs and 800 indirect jobs will be generated during the construction of the project while the completed wind farm will employ 30 full-time staff during its anticipated 25-year life span.
Leighton Contractors has been awarded a $290m contract for the engineering, procurement and construction work.
Meridian chief executive Tim Lusk said that wind generation had a substantial cost advantage over other grid scale renewable technologies that could be practically deployed in Australia.
“We expect wind farms – and Macarthur in particular – to make a substantial contribution to Australian retailers meeting commitments under the Renewable Energy Target,” he said.
Consultant Sinclair Knight Merz has been commissioned by the AGL to undertake economic impact assessment to calculate the benefits of AGL’s wind energy activities in the region.
AGL is developing the Hallett group of wind farms in South Australia, with the Hallett 2 Wind Farm formally commissioned in April and Hallett 4 and 5 Wind Farms under construction and Hallett 3 in development.
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