Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona has started construction of the 157.5MW Mortlake South Wind Farm in Victoria, Australia.
Image: Victoria Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D'Ambrosio (3rd from the right), Brett Wickham (1st from the right) along with other authorities, executives and landowners at the ground-breaking ceremony. Photo: Courtesy of Acciona.
Acciona Energía is building the wind farm with an investment of about A$288m (€180m) and it will be powered by 35 of Nordex’s 4.5MW turbines. The wind farm will be 100% owned by the Spanish company.
Each of the wind turbines will have a rotor diameter of 149m and the blades will almost be about 73m in length. When the wind farm comes into operation in the second half of next year, it will increase Acciona’s wind power capacity by 36% to 592MW in the country.
The Mortlake South wind farm will generate enough clean electricity to power nearly 115,000 Australian homes, while avoiding 532,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere annually. The construction phase will result in the generation of nearly 100 jobs and 10 permanent jobs during the operational phase.
The construction phase will also include laying of a 15km-long underground power line of 220kV to connect to the substation at Terang.
The wind farm will be supported by an energy storage installation to improve its performance and provide grid integration. The storage capacity is still being evaluated and is expected to be between 4-5MW, the company said.
Acciona Energy Australia managing director Brett Wickham said: “This fifth wind farm in Australia shows our long-term commitment in a country whose energy future is increasingly linked to the development of clean and renewable sources – a process to which ACCIONA wants to make a significant contribution.”
Acciona stated that this is the fifth wind farm for Acciona in Australia. The other four wind farms operated by Acciona include the 64MW Cathedral Rocks in South Australia, the 46.5MW Gunning in New South Wales and the 192MW Waubra and the 132MW Mt. Gellibrand in Victoria.
Acciona had won the tender to construct the wind farm last September from the State Government of Victoria.