Spanish infrastructure services provider Acciona has started the commissioning process of the 132MW Mount Gellibrand wind farm in Victoria, Australia.
Image: Acciona’s Australian wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Acciona.
The wind farm includes 44 of Nordex’s AW125/3000 wind turbines with rated power of 3MW and a rotor diameter of 125 meters installed on an 87.5-metre-high (hub height) steel tower.
Turbines at the wind farm are coming online and around 66MW of capacity is expected to come online in July, while it is expected to reach full capacity in August. The total output from the wind farm is expected to power nearly 60,000 Australian homes. The total investment for the wind farm is nearly A$258m (€165m).
The wind farm’s construction began after a public tender process, where the Victorian Government committed to purchasing the renewable energy certificates generated from 66MW of Mount Gellibrand.
The certificates are expected to contribute to the state’s renewable energy generation targets of 25% by 2020 and 40% by 2025.
Mount Gellibrand wind farm is Acciona Energy’s fourth wind farm in Australia after the 64MW Cathedral Rocks in South Australia, 192MW Waubra in Victoria and 46.5MW Gunning in New South Wales. The country ranks fourth in the company’s portfolio of wind assets after Spain, the US and Mexico.
Acciona Energy Australia managing director Brett Wickham said “It’s a great moment for the team, the local community and Victoria. This project represents a significant investment in the state and in the Australian renewables sector. We are immensely proud to see energy production starting.
“We are also grateful to the local community for their support over the past year, and to all the employees and local contractors for their hard work and dedication in reaching this milestone.”
Recently, the company has begun operations at the 183MW El Cortijo wind farm in Tamaulipas in Mexico.
The company has invested around $235m in the project. When completed, the wind farm will deliver 585.5GWh of clean energy annually, which will be sold under a long term electric power auction in Mexico, after energy reforms took place in the country.