The Golden Plains wind farm has started generating power in the first stage of what is set to be the southern hemisphere’s biggest wind farm.
The wind farm, near Geelong in Victoria, marks a milestone in the build-out of renewable energy and paves the way for Victoria to exit coal-fired power.
Project owner TagEnergy today announced another investment by Ingka Investments, the owner of the Ikea retail chain. Ingka had already taken a 15% stake in the 756 MW first stage and will now do the same with the 577 MW second stage that is now under construction.
The 1,333 megawatt (MW) facility near Geelong began injecting its first power into the grid a few weeks ago, but has been slowly ramping up its output as it also deals with issues from falling parts on its turbine blades which have halted construction efforts and caused it to create a buffer zone around some of the turbines.
TagEnergy has delivered the project and secured its grid connection agreement in remarkably quick time, despite having problems with the serrated edges of the Vestas turbine blades that have come unstuck.
The project has now effectively overtaken the 923 MW MacIntyre project in Queensland as the biggest wind farm in Australia.
TagEnergy has secured contracts with utilities EnergyAustralia (40% of stage 2) and Snowy Hydro (40% of stage 1), and with data centre company Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) for 20% of stage 1.
More projects to come
CEO Franck Woitiez said: “We have shown our innovative commercial approach brings large scale projects to life fast. We will continue to innovate to deliver more projects to speed the transition, and the government’s supportive policy landscape will facilitate that.
“Throughout the project’s development, we were buoyed by the confidence those at the forefront of the energy transition showed in TagEnergy’s ability to deliver large-scale renewables projects, from our lenders to the Victorian and Australian governments and the Australian Energy Market Operator.”
TagEnergy is also working on an even bigger wind project, the Pines, which is a planned 2,000 MW facility in the central west of NSW, although development of that project is still some time off.
The future of energy is renewable
“We believe the future of energy is renewable, and Australia has such rich potential to harness these sources, especially wind and solar,” said Mirja Viinanen, the CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA Australia.
“As we work to reduce our climate footprint in our retail operations, we’re investing in renewable energy through onsite generation at our stores and distribution centre and switching to renewable energy for heating and cooling our buildings.”