A $900 million wind farm proposed for near Jamestown in South Australia’s Mid-North has been given the nod by development authorities.
According to AdelaideNow, plans for the 315MW Hornsdale Wind Farm have now been submitted to the State Government for final approval.
The project consists of 105 wind turbines located on a site between 8km and 24km north of Jamestown in South Australia, in the locality of Hornsdale. The site comprises approximately 7,500 hectares of private freehold land, although very little of the land will actually be occupied by wind turbines.
Up to 250 jobs are expected to be created during the 18-24 month construction phase and the project will provide ongoing employment for around 10 local people in operation and maintenance.
The facility will generate approximately 1,050,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity annually, enough to supply the power needs of approximately 180,000 homes. This represents around 10 per cent of South Australia’s population.
The carbon emission reductions achieved are estimated at 1,250,000 tones per annum - the equivalent to taking 290,000 cars off the road each year the facility is operating during its expected 25 year life.
The Hornsdale Wind Farm owners hope to begin wind turbine installation by the middle of next year, with view to the facility commencing operations in late 2014.
Hornsdale Wind Farm is being developed by Investec Bank (Australia) Limited. The company has two other Australian wind farms in its portfolio - the Collgar Wind Farm in Western Australia (206MW) and the Oaklands Hill Wind Farm (63MW) in Victoria.
Late last month Energy Matters reported on wind energy being referred to as the new baseload in South Australia. During the March quarter, wind power contributed 31 per cent of the State’s grid electricity generation - 942GWh.
Also recently announced were plans by the operators of Snowtown South Wind Farm to add an additional 42 Siemens 3.0 MW wind turbines at the site.
