Western Australia’s Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) has granted an electricity generation licence to Wind Portfolio, a subsidiary of APA Group, for the construction of a 130MW Badgingarra wind farm, 180km north of Perth.
The wind farm will consist of 37 turbines, each with a capacity to produce 3.6MW. Electricity produced from the wind farm is estimated to be between 500 to 550GWh per year.
The power generated from the wind farm will be sold to Alinta Energy, under a 12 year power purchase agreement (PPA). The ERA has granted the licence to Wind Portfolio for a period of 30 years starting from 23 June.
Financial close for the wind farm is expected to be arrived at in the next month. The wind farm will be constructed alongside an 80MW Emu Downs wind farm and the 20MW Emu Downs solar farm. After construction, the trio of power projects will create a 230MW renewable zone near Cervantes, 20km north of Perth, RenewEconomy reported.
Wind Portfolio applied for the licence with the ERA in April this year.
The Badgingarra wind farm is one of the more than 1GW large scale wind and solar projects that are in the pipeline in Australia, which will power the Australian grid with renewable energy.
Other projects bought by Alinta Energy include the 300MW Yandin wind project, 110MW Sun Brilliance solar project and another 110MW solar project near Merredin and several other smaller wind and solar projects in the state of Western Australia.