Australia gives green light to 1GW wind farm
New South Wales approves the Liverpool Range wind farm, a giant project that will consist of up to 267 wind turbines
Australia’s New South Wales state has approved the construction of a 1GW onshore wind farm as part of the electricity transition in the area, as older coal-fired power stations are retired.
The giant development, Australia’s largest to date, will be built and owned by local renewable energy company Epuron. The Liverpool Range wind farm will be located between the towns of Coolah and Cassilis in central western NSW.
The project will consist of up to 267 wind turbines. So far, there has been no information regarding the turbine supplier or the cost of bringing such a project online.
“The wind farm will make use of an excellent wind resource and has a strong grid connection into the Wellington Wollar 330kV power network 30km south of the site,” Epuron said in a statement.
“The wind farm will provide direct benefits to the communities of Coolah and Cassilis through increased employment, investment, economic benefits and a significant community enhancement fund,” it added.
In recent years, the Australian renewables sector has regained traction under the country’s revised renewable energy target (RET).
Last year, the long-delayed 200MW Silverton wind farm, which was constructed by Epuron, got the green light from its backers.
AGL Energy acquired Silverton from Epuron in 2012. The project is still under construction using GE 3.4-130 turbines, and is due online by mid-2018.
To date, Epuron has worked on the construction of 8 wind farms in NSW, totalling over 2.2GW. It then sold the majority of its wind farms to other operators, including Goldwind, AGL, Tilt Renewables and Origin Energy.