While Victoria has implemented guidelines that may put the brakes on wind power in the state, South Australia is continuing to attract major wind energy investment interest.
Suzlon have announced plans for a $1.3 billion wind farm on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, which will be linked by submarine cable to Adelaide.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann announced some details about the proposed project on his Twitter profile a few hours ago:
“The Suzlon proposal is to build up to 180 turbines, 20 km south west of Ardrossan. If approved they plan to generate up to 600 megawatts.”
Premier Rann said enough clean electricity would be generated by the wind farm to power more than 200,000 homes each year, avoiding the equivalent of 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
The project would also provide substantial employment benefits during the construction phase, with 500 jobs being created.
The Premier is particularly proud of South Australia’s track record in embracing wind energy and pointed out the state already has 54% of Australia’s wind power capacity, which is 5 times more per capita than Victoria and 10 times more than New South Wales.
According to Wikipedia, South Australia had thirteen operational wind farms by December 2010, with an installed capacity of 1,018 megawatts (MW). An additional 184 MW of wind farm projects were under construction at the time.
South Australia may attract even more wind power investment after the Victorian government recently implemented rules to enforce a minimum two-kilometre distance between large wind turbines and houses, a move the Clean Enegy Council said would see $3 billion in investment lost to Victoria.
According to Suzlon’s web site, the company has so far been awarded contracts in excess of 2 billion dollars to supply over 750MW of clean power capacity in Australia. Suzlon wind turbines are currently in use at the AGL Hallett, Snowtown, Clements Gap, Oaklands Hill, Capital and Woodlawn wind farms.
