Wind Power in SA

As of June 2019 I will no longer attempt to keep information about
individual wind farms and overall wind farm development up to date on these pages.

Introduction

Wind power support group Go to Australian Wind Alliance if you are interested in supporting wind power. This is an expansion from the Victorian Wind Alliance. Those against wind power are getting organised. Many more people are in favour of wind power, but unfortunately they are not saying much.

This page discusses matters that relate to wind-generated electricity, especially as it is developing in South Australia. It is intended to be factual; any opinion or speculation is clearly shown as such. I would appreciate being informed of any errors that I might have made (email address above).

Before 2003 there was only one large wind turbine in South Australia: a 150kW unit at Coober Pedy. By October 2011 there was over 1200MW of operational wind farm capacity in South Australia and the state had about as high an installed capacity of wind power per capita as any nation in the world (see Installed wind power per capita and How does Australia compare?). By the end of 2017 SA had 1791 MW of wind power, more than any other state; Victoria was getting close in megawatts, but as it has a far higher electricity consumption the proportion of wind power in Victoria was far behind SA.

South Australia shows the rest of Australia what is possible

The graph below shows a record of South Australia's huge success in:

1. Going from near zero renewable energy to about 50% in just 15 years;
2. Adopting wind power (shown green on the graph);
3. Adopting solar power (shown yellow on the graph);
4. Finishing with coal power (shown brown on the graph);
5. and from 2017, increasingly exporting power to the eastern states.

The remainder of Australia has achieved far less. For more information on South Australia's great achievement see SA Success, elsewhere on this site.

Edited 2017/05/30

Growth of the SA wind industry

Data from my own records Chronological Year MW Cumulative MW Name 2003 34.5 34.5 Starfish Hill 2005 90.8 125.3 Wattle Point 2005 46.0 171.3 Lake Bonney Stage 1 2005 66.0 317.8 Cathedral Rocks 2005 70.0 387.8 Mount Millar 2008 94.5 482.3 Brown Hill Range (Hallett) 2008 159.0 641.3 Lake Bonney Stage 2 2008 100.8 742.1 Snowtown 2009 56.7 798.8 Clements Gap 2009 71.4 870.2 Hallett Hill (Hallett) 2009 39.0 909.2 Lake Bonney Stage 3 2010 111.0 1020.2 Waterloo 2011 132.3 1152.5 North Brown Hill (Hallett) 2011 52.5 1205.0 Bluff Range (Hallett) 2014 270.0 1475.0 Snowtown 2 2016 100.0 1575.0 Hornsdale 1

50% target reached 8 years early South Australia had a target of 50% renewable electricity by 2025. The ABC reported 2017/04/10 that 53% of South Australia's energy came from wind and solar in 'the past year'. By far the greatest proportion of this was wind power. Clean Energy Council reported 48% renewable energy for 2016 In its 2016 Clean Energy Australia Report the CEC stated that in 2016, 40% of SA's power came from wind farms and 8% from solar PV. SA's last coal-fired power station was closed on 2016/05/09 and Hornsdale Wind Farm Stage 1 came on line around late 2016. Both of these changes substantially increased the proportion of renewables in the SA energy mix.

In early 2003 the only large wind turbine in South Australia was a 0.15 MW unit at Coober Pedy.

The proportion of wind-generated electricity in South Australia went from virtually zero in early 2003 to 32% in 2015/16 and increased subtantially again when Snowtown Stage 2 was finished (up to around 33%). This has been a remarkable achievement in just eleven years, and shows what can be done, even in a national environment that is not particularly favourable to renewable energy (there is a very strong and influential fossil fuel lobby).

Unfortunately by March 2011 there was a downturn in wind farm construction. At that time there was only one small wind farm (Bluff Range, 25 turbines) under construction in SA.

No more wind farms were built until Snowtown Stage 2 was commenced in August of 2012 and completed in July 2014. Hornsdale Stage 1 was commenced in January 2016 and completed in November of the same year.

The years shown in the table on the right are the years in which the wind farms were completed.

Over the past decade worldwide wind energy generation capacity has been increasing by around 25% per year while wind energy prices have been falling by 4% per year.

Wind Penetration in SA   Total Generation (GWh) Wind Generation (GWh) Wind Penetration 2006 11 553 714 6.2% 2007 14 310 1 057 7.4% 2008 14 414 1 807 12.5% 2009 13 976 2 334 16.7% 2010 (up to October) 11 617 2 001 17.2% 2012/13 - - 27% 2013/14 11 734 4 098 34.9% 2014/15 11 417 4 226 37.0%

For the table on the right:

• data to 2010 were from Intelligent Energy Systems (IES), Insider, "Penetration and Spot Revenue", 2011.
• 2010 figure from a March 2012 press release by EnergyQuest.
• 2012/13 to 2014/15 figures from Australian Energy Market Operator.

SA government sustainable energy initiatives in perspective The figures are installed capacities Project MW Government Adelaide Airport PV 0.11 Goyder Pavilion PV 1.00 Wilpena PV 0.10 Commercial Wind farms (at the end of 2010) 1150.40 Potential further on-shore wind developments 25 000     Potential off-shore wind developments 25 000

The table on the right places the South Australian Government's projects in perspective against commercial wind farms.

If the SA government was serious about maximising SA's sustainable power it could spend taxpayer's money much more productively than on tiny 'showcase' projects, for example by upgrading power transmission lines.

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The future of wind power in SA

Climate change is happening and must be minimised; Australia and the world must move away from fossil fuels. I don't think that any reasonable and informed person can doubt this any more. Unfortunately Australian governments are not giving climate change the high priority that it needs.

The lower two sections have been erected for these Brown Hill Range turbines. Two more tower sections to go, followed by the turbine itself. 2007/12/12

Wind, at the present, is the most economically competitive form of sustainable energy ready to take a significant part of the load, although solar photovoltaic (PV) is closing the economic gap. Using biological waste and methane from land-fill to generate electricity is feasible and is being done, but its capacity is limited. It is looking like solar thermal and 'hot dry rock' geothermal is close to being competitive, but these are not ready yet and will take many years to 'scale-up' to the point where they are major sources of energy. Wave-power, harnessing algae to produce fuels, and other alternatives seem further away. A decade or two could change that picture.

Certainly wind power is not 'the answer' to climate change. Only a naive person would believe that there is a single answer, and only a naive person would object to wind power because it is not 'the answer'. It is a part of 'the answer'. Other parts are energy conservation, technological innovation, development of other forms of sustainable energy, and education. (I have listed some suggestions in What should be done.)

So, what is the future of wind power in SA?

ElectraNet ElectraNet "Is the principal Transmission Network Service Provider (TNSP) and System Control Centre Operator in South Australia, and we operate in the National Electricity Market." In regard to the future of wind power their SA Annual Planning Report of 2011 stated that: "Studies show that the existing transmission network has the capacity to enable up to approximately 2300 MW of wind generation in South Australia before generation exceeds regional demand and interconnector export capacity. This means that the currently installed wind generation capacity could roughly be doubled. Beyond this, more extensive development of South Australia's renewable energy resources would require significant transmission investment." Also in the planning report: "Inter-regional capacity to export energy from South Australia is limited, potentially restricting flows from existing and additional generation connecting in South Australia. This is particularly noticeable during periods of light load and high wind conditions". Upgrade interconnector ABC News 2013/01/17 announced that ElectraNet is to "upgrade the Heywood substation and reconfigure the south-east network at a cost of $108 million". This will "pave the way for more South Australian wind energy to be transferred interstate, opening the door for more investment in the technology."

If the logic in the few sentences above is correct, then wind power must be developed to the maximum reasonable degree and as quickly as possible. Wind farms could be built along most of the west-facing coasts of South Australia. That is, from near Ceduna to Coffin Bay on Eyre Peninsula, along much of the west coast of Yorke Peninsula and from around Meningie to Port MacDonald in the South East. Wind turbines could be built along many of the major rounded north-south ridges of the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Southern Flinders Ranges.

One of the greatest problems for future development of wind power in South Australia is the lack of transmission lines in many of the areas with good wind resources. No further development is possible on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas for lack of transmission capacity, and the huge potential resource on Kangaroo Island cannot be developed for the same reason.

I would hope and expect that national parks and conservation parks would be kept free of wind farm developments.

Will we get sick of the sight of wind turbines? Quite possibly. The alternatives, it seems to me, are either to throw caution (and sanity) to the wind and continue with fossil fuels, or to totally change our life-styles and enormously cut down on the amount of energy that we use, in our personal lives and in industry. I cannot imagine our society being ready or willing to do the latter and I hope we will not be so stupidly short-sighted as to do the former.

Note: Latitudes and Longitudes are given below in decimal degrees. They are given to two decimal places because this defines the location to ±1 km; a wind farm is a large thing and typically covers a number of kilometres.

Note that the wind farms listed here as proposed or approved will not necessarily ever be built. You can't be sure that anything is going to be built until it starts happening.

SA wind farms by region

Updated 2014/05/09

Where SA and Mid-North SA stand on the world scene

Wind generation in SA by region, Jan. 2015
Average generation up to end 2012 in MW (total 399MW). The averages were calculated from differing starting dates for the various wind farms. Mid-North wind farms were responsible for 58% of the total.

Climate change will result in the extinction of thousands or even millions of species. It will cause the displacement of billions of people, and quite possibly the deaths of billions as well – from flooding of fertile river deltas, coasts, and desertification of large areas of what is now farm land, and from the mass migrations and wars that will result. Ocean acidification, also caused by the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is another looming disaster.

Australia ranks 53rd in the world in population, but sixth in the world in the CO2 produced by its electricity industry. Australia has 0.3% of the world's population, but produces 1.5% of the world's CO2. We Australian's have an ethical responsibility to lift our game. Changing from fossil-fuel generated electricity to sustainably generated electricity is one way we can do that.

In early 2003 SA had negligible sustainably generated electricity, just ten years later, in the 2015/16 financial year, 32% of our electricit was generated from the wind. That is remarkable progress.

In 2011 both Denmark, the world's leading nation, and SA had around 700 Watts of installed wind power per person.

Mid-North SA

Also see Leading Australia in renewables

I live in Mid-North SA where there is 889MW of installed wind power and this generates an average of about 320MW (as of early 2016). Another way of looking at this is that, with a population of about 43 000, our wind farms generate around 8000 Watts for each person in the region (see graph above)! If the rest of South Australia, Australia, and the world was to follow our lead we would be well and truly on the way toward fixing the climate change problem. We are well up among the world leaders in renewable energy. This is something of which those of us in the Mid-North, who either work in or support the wind industry, should be intensely proud.

It is also progress that is in danger of ending if the Liberals have their way. Local Liberal parliamentarians such as Senator Sean Edwards and Rowan Ramsey oppose wind power. (More on those who unethically oppose wind power.)

We in the Mid-North are leading the world in the fight against climate change! It should be a huge positive, but few people seem to see it as such – or if they do, they don't talk about it. Perhaps it's because people feel that they have no part in the wind power developments, they are just bystanders – and that is true if they choose to make it true. (See Why support wind power.)

Wind farms by location

Updated 2017/07/14

Below is a conceptual map of SA. The numbers in each cell are the Latitude and Longitude, the main town in each area is shown in the cells. Placing the mouse over the highlighted bits will show which wind farms are in that area, clicking will allow you to get to the details of those wind farms. Similar sections are in the pages on NSW and Victoria and WA.

This section can be used as an alternative to the Wind farm by region section.

Updated 2013/02/19

Allendale Wind Farm

Also known as Allendale East Wind Farm

Map credit Acciona

This project was proposed by Acciona Energy. ABC on-line News announced that Acciona had withdrawn the proposal because it would not be commercially viable (2013/02/19).

The District Council of Grant granted approval to Acciona's Development Application in March 2010; however this was appealed; see 'Court case', below.

It is proposed that the wind farm be about two kilometres east of Allendale East and about 18 km south of Mount Gambier. Port Macdonnell is about seven kilometres SW of the farm.

Acciona arranged a visit about September 2010 to the Waubra Wind Farm for the local people who are expecting to become a part of the Allendale project. As well as a guided tour of the wind farm the Allendale people had a chance to chat to farmers involved in the Waubra Wind Farm.

Court case

A dairy farmer, Richard Paltridge, has brought a case against this wind farm in the Environment Resources and Development (ERD) Court. Adelaide Now (2011/01/29) stated that Mr Paltridge "has concerns relating to the humming noise of the turbines and its possible long-term health impact, the flashing lights on turbine towers and obstruction of views".

Richard Paltridge's appeal was upheld and Justice Costello, while rejecting evidence pertaining to health problems, upheld the appeal on the basis of visual amenity. (Reported in The Courier 2011/06/24.) It seems that this is the first time an appeal against a wind farm has been upheld on visual amenity grounds.

On 2011/07/11 ABC on-line news carried an article stating that Acciona is appealing against the ERD Court's ruling.

Community funding

Acciona have not responded to my inquiry regarding community funding at Waubra; perhaps, unlike a number of other companies, they don't provide any?

Summary data for Allendale Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat	Long
Project abandoned	46	1.5	69	Unknown	S 38.00°	E 140.78°

Further information on Allendale wind farm
Tower height	Up to 80m
Blade length	Up to 41m
Maximum height – to blade tip	Up to 121m
Expected greenhouse CO2 abatement	180 000 tonnes per year

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Updated 2013/09/03

Barn Hill Wind Farm (Red Hill, Mundoora)

This project belongs to AGL who held an information day at Redhill on 2012/03/03. The project has been approved, but AGL is seeking amendments to the approval.

Modifications approved It was reported by ABC on-line news on 2013/09/03 that the Port Pirie Regional Council's Development Assessment Panel had approved changes to the wind farm. The towers are to be taller than originally planed, and the turbine layout has been modified.

AGL seems not to have a Net page specific to the project; which suggests that they are not very serious about informing the public. There is a mention of the project at "http://www.agl.com.au/about/ASXReleases/Pages/ AGLacquirestwowindfarmdevelopmentsfromTransfieldServices.aspx" (there are no spaces in the URL); but this was written in 2009. About 4 points out of 10 to AGL for effort!

AGL gave contacts for inquiries as:
Project Manager Evan Carless 02 9921 2214;
Community Engagement Officer Judy Ipper 03 8633 7452

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat	Long
Approved	Up to 62	2.1 to 3	130 to 186	Unknown	S 33.57°	E 138.16°

Barn Hill is a prominent hill about 8 km SW of Red Hill, about 6 km east of Mundoora and 160 km NNW of Adelaide. It is conspicuous from the plains around Port Broughton, and is named The Bluff on some maps.

Stanwell Corporation, sold their interest in Barn Hill to Transfield Services Infrastructure in December 2007 and on 2009/06/18 AGL Energy Limited announced that it had acquired the rights to Barn Hill Wind Farm.

Transfield held public meetings at Redhill and Mundoora to discuss development of the wind farm in June 2008; they submitted a Development Application to the Port Pirie and Wakefield councils in September 2008 and this was approved in late January 2009.

The Barn Hill Wind Farm, if it is built rather than simply being sold from one potential developer to another, will fill the space along the Barunga Range between Clements Gap and Snowtown Wind Farms. (That is, from the Hope Gap Road in the south to the Torrs Gap Road in the north.)

Further information on Barn Hill wind farm
Estimated average wind speed	8.3m/sec.

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Canunda Wind Farm

Edited 2013/06/16

Canunda summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	23	Vestas	V80	2	46	Opened March 2005	30%	S 37.61°	E 140.29°

The capacity factor above was taken from AEMO data for June 2008 to December 2012 inclusive.

Wind turbines of Canunda/Lake Bonney

A 46 MW $92.5M wind farm on Woakwine ridge near Tantanoola owned by Canunda Power P.L., a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based International Power P.L. IP has a Net page on the wind farm. For directions to Canunda go to ExplorOz.

The first two turbines were switched on in early November 2004. The wind farm consists of 23 turbines each of 2 MW. AGL has signed a deal to purchase all the power generated at this wind farm.

This wind farm was formerly called Lake Bonney Central Wind Farm.

Also see Canunda photos and notes on visiting Canunda.

Further information on Canunda Wind Farm
Wind generators	Vestas 2 MW
Rotation rate	Between 9 and 19rpm, depending on wind speed
Tower height	67m
Blade length	39m
Total height to blade tip	107m
Cut-in wind speed	4m/sec.
Max. energy wind speed	14m/sec.
Cut-out wind speed	25m/sec.
Distribution power line	33kV double-circuit, 16 km long
Substation	Snuggery

Generation record Data up to end 2012

Generation record for Canunda

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Canunda Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

In 2009 Canunda wind farm generated 119 GWh of renewable electricity and fed it into the National Grid.

Community funding

Wattle Range Council co-ordinates a Financial Assistance Grant of behalf of Canunda Power for $4000 annually. (Pers. Com. C.L. Bell, W.R. Council). This equates $174 per turbine per year. (Confirmed by Mark Williams, International Power Australia.)

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Carmodys Hill Wind Farm

Update: February 2020

An advertisement was placed in the Flinders News on 2020/02/12 announcing a community information session at the Georgetown Memorial Hall, Pitts Street, Georgetown on Wednesday 19th February. It seems that a company, Georgetown Hills Renewable Energy Pty Ltd, has been formed to revive the project. 'Up to' 45 wind turbines are proposed together with 'an energy storage system'.

At the information session I read that the total power of the wind farm was 'up to 270 MW', so the turbines would be up to 6 MW each. I was informed that Siemens had some connection to the proposal. $200,000 per year has been promised for community development if the project goes ahead, a very generous amount.

Updated 2013/02/26 The original proposal Sometimes called Gulnare Wind Farm Proposed by Pacific Hydro The site is east of Georgetown and runs along 18 km of ridge-line south from Bundaleer Forest to Mount Misery. It is about 170 km north of Adelaide. Summary data for Carmodys Hill Wind Farm Status No. of turbines MW each Total MW Construction date Lat Long Project abandoned up to 70 2.5 up to 175 Unknown S 33.37° E 138.48° Additional data for Carmodys Hill Wind Farm Project cost Aus$350 million Greenhouse abatement Estimated at 540 000 tonnes per year Electricity generation Up to 613 GWh p.a. From ABC On-line news, 2013/02/26 The project was approved in 2009, but Pacific Hydro did little work on it. When the approval came up for renewal again in 2013 Northern Areas Council rejected it due mainly to lack of progress.

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Edited 2018/07/17

Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm

Cathedral Rocks summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Lat	Long
Operating	32	Vestas	V80	2	64	May 2007	S 34.80	E 135.56

There were originally 33 turbines; see below for more information.

Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm is south of Port Lincoln in southern Eyre Peninsula. Port Lincoln is 250 km west of Adelaide as the crow flies, but considerably more by road.

It's ownership, like that of many wind farms, has changed. It was once jointly owned by some combination of TRUenergy, Acciona and EHN (Oceania) Pty. Ltd.; more recently Palisade has bought a share.

Further data on Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm

Turbine make	Vestas
Tower height	60m
Rotor diameter	80m
Total area covered	29 square kilometres
Annual production	178 GWh
Capacity factor	31%

The annual production and capacity factor figures above are calculated from AEMO data for March 2009 to December 2012 data (inclusive) downloaded via the Australian Landscape Guardians '.csv' format download facility.

Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm Appreciation to John White Photos

I tried to visit this wind farm in February, 2006. I was disappointed to be informed that the public does not have access to within even a good viewing distance. I was able to see it only by using binoculars from the top of Winters Hill at Pt. Lincoln. Better views would probably be available from Whaler's Way, on the southern tip of Eyre Peninsula.

Not all of the turbines were running on 4th and 5th February 2006 in spite of there seeming to be ample wind.

Fire 2009/02/03

There was a fire in one of the Cathedral Rocks turbines. ABC On-line news reported that the fire was seen from a nearby boat at 1am (third Feb.) Damages have been estimated at $6 million. The fire was confined to the turbine and spots in a small surrounding area of scrub.

Failure of main shaft, about July 2014

I have been informed that there was a failure of a main shaft in one turbine (from the hub to the gearbox) that resulted eventually in the turbine being taken out of service. This wind farm seems to have had a more exciting than average life.

An exercise on smoothing the generation

I have used Cathedral Rocks WF as an example of the possible use of hydropower (seawater pumped to cliff-tops when there was plenty of wind and down again through a hydropower station when the wind stopped blowing) on my Sustainable Energy page.

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Cathedral Rocks

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Community funding

An inquiry was sent to Roaring 40s (Australia) by email 2010/09/21. No reply had been received to 2011/01/17.

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Updated 2019/05/27

Ceres Project

Location plan Map credit The Ceres Project, 2013 This wind farm is to be built in Yorke Peninsula between Ardrossan, Port Vincent and Curramulka. It was originally proposed by REpower, part of the then Suzlon Group; the company involved now is Senvion. They have a Net site about the project. The project, as it was intended at the time, in 2014, gained state government approval. The proponents have recently (February 2019) applied for a variation to their original proposal. The wind farm will consist of four turbine regions and if built will be one of the biggest in Australia, Many years of collected data suggest that average wind speeds are better than eight metres per second. The power will be sent to Adelaide via a buried undersea cable with a maximum capacity of 600 MW and a diameter of about 10 cm (the existing power transmission lines on Yorke Peninsula are at maximum capacity when Wattle Point Wind Farm is operating at full power). High voltage direct current (HVDC) technology will be used. The lack of suitable transmission lines for the development of sustainable energy in Australia is discussed elsewhere on this site. The project was initiated by local farmers and developers. The Ceres name comes from a ship that was powered both by sails and steam and built in 1876. Its captain, John Germein, bacame an early pioneer of Yorke Peninsula, and several of his descendents are among the farmers involved in the proposal. (Ceres is the name of the largest of the asteroids, and the first to be discovered, in 1801; and also the Roman goddess of agriculture.) A similar wind farm, with undersea transmission cable, could be built on Kangaroo Island, where the wind resource is probably even better than in this area. This may not have been proposed because of expected public resistance or because the undersea cable would have to be longer and more expensive.

Summary data, Ceres Project

Status	# Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat.	Long.
Superseded project	197	3.4?	670?	?	S 34.61°	E 137.74°
Variation applied for	187	3.7 to 6	600	June 2020?

Additional data on Ceres Project
Based on the variation to approval applied for in early 2019

Owner/operator	Senvion
Tower hub height	93 m
Tip height	220 m
Rotor diameter	160 m
Ground clearance	60 m

Opposition

There has been significant local opposition. The main opposition group, Heartland Farmers (HF), placed a full page advertisement in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times on 2013/02/12. The advertisement contained a number of exaggerations or false statements. (I have written about Heartland Farmers and their duplicity on another page; and there is a page on the Ceres project.) Community funding A total of $150 000 per year has been promised.

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Edited 2017/06/17

Clements Gap Wind Farm

Pacific Hydro has a Net site on the Wind Farm.

Clements Gap summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Lat	Long
Operating	27	Suzlon	S88	2.1	56.7	Late 2009	S 33.50°	E 138.11°

The range on which the Clements Gap turbines are to be built. Clements Gap itself is in the hollow beyond the near hill 2007/10/07 The first three half-towers are up. 2009/03/23 18 half-towers up and many blades on-site 2009/04/10

Clements Gap is about 15 km south of Crystal Brook and 180 km north of Adelaide. For directions to Clements Gap go to ExplorOz.

While the turbines were imported, the towers were manufactured in Adelaide. Pacific Hydro has a Net page on the project, the full URL is "http://www.pacifichydro.com.au/en-us/our-projects/australia-/ clements-gap-wind-farm.aspx" (note that there should be no spaces in the URL).

Further information on Clements Gap Wind Farm... The project Owner/operator Pacific Hydro Estimated cost Aus$135 million Turbine make Suzlon Electricity generation Estimated 170 GWh/annum Capacity factor 35% Greenhouse gas saving Estimated 170 000t/yr Total cargo to be transported to site 8 000 tonnes The capacity factor above was calculated from AEMO data from August 2009 to December 2012 data (inclusive) downloaded via the Australian Landscape Guardians Net pages. The turbines Wind generators Suzlon S-88-2.1 MW Hub height 80m Swept area of each turbine 0.6ha Total steel in towers 4 400 tonnes

Air seems insubstantial, but this can be misleading. It is interesting to note that at full production ten million tonnes of air will pass through the 27 turbines of Clements Gap Wind Farm each hour.

Estimated payback time for the "embodied energy" of the whole wind farm is approximately five months.

Most of the information for this section came from Pacific Hydro and Suzlon; in particular Terry Teoh of the former and Megan Wheatley of the latter.

I did a very short investigation on 2010/07/19. The closest occupied houses to the turbines of this wind farm seemed to be at least one kilometre away.

Infrasound testing

The South Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report titled "Infrasound levels near windfarms and in other environments" in January 2013. Clements Gap was one of the wind farms that was used in the study.

Completed turbines at Clements Gap – not yet all operating – 2009/07/24

Generation record Up to end 2012 Generation record for Clements Gap The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Clements Gap Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month. Community funding Pacific Hydro established a Community Fund of $50 000 per year for the life of this wind farm; this is $1852 per turbine per year and, so far as I know, is more than most wind farms put into the local communities. The first year of operation of the fund was 2009 and as of September 2010 a total of $100k has been distributed. I was informed by Adam Chandler of Pacific Hydro on 2017/06/16 that "The Fund has been operating since 2008-09, and has supported 107 community-led projects in the local area with over $385,000 provided in that time." Air navigation lights Clements Gap Wind Farm had air navigation lights on a few of its turbines from construction at least to August 2010, but they were switched off by the end of the year. Noise I have taken sound level readings at Clements Gap on two occasions (September and October 2010); both times I recorded a maximum of 54 or 54dB(A) at a distance of around 100m from a turbine. Both times the sound levels at distances of 300-500m were in the 40s, and at one or two kilometres, while the turbines were audible, my meter did not register a reading (it has a minimum of 40dB). Also see notes on Visiting Clements Gap Wind Farm. Maintenance, May 2012 I noticed on 2012/05/23 that the turbines were not turning in spite of a stiff breeze. Lane Crockett of Pacific Hydro told me that he thought there was some scheduled maintenance happening on the electrical sub-station. The wind farm did not operate from about 1000hrs on 2012/05/20 to 1930hrs 2012/05/24, with the exception of a short burst between 1600 and 1700hrs on 2012/05/21.

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Updated 2018/07/15

Coober Pedy wind farm

The 1991 Nordex Coober Pedy wind turbine Photo credit: Greg Farkas

Coober Pedy is a remote town about 750 km NNW of Adelaide. Previous to 1991 its power supply was by expensive-to-run local diesel powered generators.

The Nordex turbine (photo on the right) was the first wind turbine of more than a few kilowatts capacity to be built in South Australia. So far as I know it was still operating in 2016.

In March 2015 Energy Developments announced that they expected to start construction of a combined solar (2 MW), wind (4 MW), battery (1MW/250kWh) and diesel hybrid power system in November 2015, subject to key component availability. Design work started in July 2014. Initial funding had been provided by ARENA.

By August 2016 financial closure had been achieved and the project had been modified to 4MW wind, 1MW solar PV, 1MW/250kWh battery with diesel back-up. It was expected that the system would provide Coober Pedy with 70% renewable energy over the 20 year life of the project.

Senvion, the makers of the turbines, have a net page on the project.

A private email from a friend and resident of Coober Pedy informed me on 2017/02/07 that the two turbines had been "installed, and will be fully operational when the rest of the project comes on line later this year". (As of February 2020 Senvion's web page stated that the turbines were operational on 2017/06/26.)

Construction of Coober Pedy Wind Farm, February 2017
Image credit Coober Pedy Regional Times

New turbines

Status	No. of Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Completion	Lat	Long
Operating	2	2	4	June 2017	S 29.03°	E 134.76°

Old Nordex turbine

Status	No. of Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Commissioned	Lat	Long
Operating?	1	0.15	0.15	1991	S 29.03°	E 134.76°

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Edited 2018/08/10

Crystal Brook Energy Park

Previously known as Collaby Hill Wind Farm and
Crystal Brook Wind Farm

The energy park received development approval from the South Australian government in early August 2019.

Updated 2018/04/91

Hallett wind farms

As of July 2012 the Hallett group, if considered to be a unit, comprised the biggest wind farm in Australia (350.7 MW installed capacity). Second biggest is Lake Bonney (SA) at 278.5 MW, third is Collgar (WA) at 206 MW and fourth Waubra (Vic) at 192 MW. (All the power from the first four stages of the Hallett group goes to a single substation before being fed into the power transmission grid.)

Not only is the Hallett group the biggest in installed capacity, it is by far the most productive wind farm in Australia, generating an average of about 134 MW. This is almost twice as much power as Waubra (in second place) which is averaging about 71 MW and Lake Bonney at 70 MW. Unfortunately generation data are not made public from WA wind farms so I can say nothing about where Collgar stands.

The individual Hallett wind farms...

Name	Hallett No.	No. turbines	MW	Status (April 2018)
Bluff Range	5	25	52.5	Operating
Brown Hill Range	1	45	94.5	Operating
Hallett Hill	2	34	71.4	Operating
North Brown Hill	4	63	132.3	Operating
Total operating		167	350.7
Mount Bryan	3	33	69.3	Proposal abandoned
Willogoleche		32	119	Construction

I have been informed that RPG Australia made the tower sections for the Hallett wind farms in Adelaide.

A confusing feature of the Hallett area is that:

• Hallett Hill (the hill and the wind farm) is close to the township of Mount Bryan, much further from the township of Hallett.
• Mount Bryan (the geographical feature and the proposed wind farm) is close to the township of Hallett, much further from the township of Mount Bryan.

See the map below. The conspicuous wind turbines along the more prominent ridges has greatly changed the appearance of the landscapes in the Hallett/Mount Bryan area.

Not only are there many high capacity turbines at Hallett, but they are very productive; up to September 2010 both Brown Hill Range and Hallett Hill had achieved capacity factors of 39 to 40%, resulting in the Hallett wind farms generating more power than any other in Australia. 40% is exceptionally high for any wind farm and it is at least partly due to the very high quality of the wind resource in the area.

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Hallett is also ideal for wind farm development because of excess capacity in the electricity transmission line that passes through the area – it was built in the expectation of further development of coal-fired power in Port Augusta that never happened – and the natural gas pipeline that is available for electricity generation to fill-in when the wind isn't blowing. (Note that, as has been the case elsewhere, the transmission lines were not built to harvest the renewable power of the wind.)

I believe that the closest occupied houses to the Hallett turbines are generally about one kilometre from the turbines.

Wind turbines on Brown Hill Range at sunrise. Booborowie Valley on the left. Brown Hill Range is one of the Hallett wind farms.

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The Hallett wind farms are a group of six, five of which were originally proposed by Wind Prospect; all are in the area around Hallett and Mount Bryan, north of Burra. The sixth, North Brown Hill Wind Farm, was added later. They are all around 170 km north of Adelaide. The originally proposed five developments aimed to have an output capacity of about 320 MW produced by 160 two-megawatt turbines.

Map of some of the Hallett wind farm locations (and proposed locations)
Acknowledgment, AGL, April 2009 Later, Bluff Range Wind Farm, Hallett #5, was built roughly half way between #1 and #3, on the south side of the Wilkins Highway. As of July 2017 there has been no further action on Mount Bryan, Hallett #3.

Estimated costs of generation for the Hallett wind farms

Costs, other than $/MWh, are in thousands of dollars
	Hallett 1	Hallett 2	Hallett 3	Hallett 4	Hallett 5
Pre op. costs	$232 837	$192 147	$2 833	$338 922	$130 000
Operations	$6 750	$5 100		$9 450	$3 750
Annual cost of capital	$17 463	$14 411		$25 419	$9 750
Total annual costs	$24 213	$19 511		$34 869	$13 500
Annual generation, MWh	327 367	242 036	242 827	463 579	183 960
$/MWh	$74	$81		$75	$73

On this table the pre-operating and operating costs were taken from SKM's 'Hallett Economic Impact Report', I estimated the annual cost of capital at (discount rate) 7.5%, the generation is calculated from actual figures from the AEMO – as explained in power generation of wind farms for Hallett#1 and Hallett#2 – and estimated by SKM for the others. See also cost of wind power.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Bluff Range Wind Farm
Also called The Bluff Wind farm

(One of the Hallett group, Hallett #5) Bluff Range Wind Farm is about 10 km West of Hallett, 5 km SE of the Hallett natural gas-fired power station and 170 km north of Adelaide.

Summary data for Bluff Range Wind Farm

Status	No. of Turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Cap. Fac.	Completion	Lat	Long
Operating	25	Suzlon	S88	2.1	52.5	35%	Late 2011	S 33.37°	E 138.80°

The capacity factor is calculated from data recorded in the period September 2011 to December 2012, inclusive.

	Photo credit AGL (webcam); Camera 02, 2011/04/30 First turbine completed
	Construction. The tractor and prime-mover in the foreground are delivering the top section of the No. 4 tower to its site, 2011/05/25
	Southern section soon after tower completion, 2011/05/25

On 2012/05/14 ReCharge (writer, Oliver Wagg) announced that this wind farm had been sold to Japan's Eurus. AGL will retain rights to all large-scale generation certificates and electricity output until 2036.

The early part of the construction of this wind farm started around mid August 2010. It has 24 Suzlon S-88 V3 2.1 MW turbines (and a prototype S-97 – more below). (The S-88 is an abbreviation: the S is for Suzlon, the 88 indicates an 88m diameter.) A spokesman for AGL said that the project will create more than 120 jobs during the construction phase.

Suzlon released a newsletter 2011/06/22. The last of the S88 turbines was almost in position and the overhead lines were competed. It was expected that the wind farm would be handed over to AGL some time in December. Cleanup and remediation, including grading disturbed areas, reseeding, and final drainage modifications were underway.

A prototype S-97 turbine has been included in the project. Tim Knill – AGL, Manager Power Development – informed me (2011/06/31) that it was expected that the S-97 "will produce about 15% more energy due to [its] larger rotor".

One of two types of concrete bases or turbine footings are commonly used for wind turbines. Gravity footings rely on a large and heavy mass of concrete to hold the turbine in place, while, if suitable bedrock is present a smaller mass of concrete can be bolted to the bedrock using rock anchors. Rock anchors were used on this project.

AGL have set up 2 web cams on site and hope to make the images available to the public. I saw on the webcam that the first turbine was completed by 2011/04/30 (photo on right).

Additional data on Bluff Range Wind Farm

Turbine height	80m
Max. blade tip height	124m
Length of on-site access tracks	About 9 km
Greenhouse gas (CO2) abatement	161 000t per year expected
The following came to light when AGL sold the wind farm in May 2011
Total project cost	$129m
Employment	Up to 100 during construction, 4 during operation
Expected output	Approximately 159 GWh p.a.
Average wind speed	7.9m/s
Effective Electricity + LGC off-take price	July 2012 – June 2014: $93/MWh July 2014: $110/MWh
Development fees	$30 million in FY2012

Community funding

AGL have established a Community Fund program of $15 000 per year; this is $600 per turbine per year and is indexed to the CPI. AGL's community funding is less than for several other wind farms, compare to the $50k per year community fund for the similarly sized Clements Gap Wind Farm 60 km to the west.

Infrasound testing

The South Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report titled "Infrasound levels near windfarms and in other environments" in January 2013. Bluff Range was one of the wind farms that was used in the study.

Generation record Up to the end of 2011

Generation record for Bluff Range

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Bluff Range Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Brown Hill Range Wind Farm

(One of the Hallett group, Hallett #1)
Brown Hill Range summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Commissioned	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	45	Suzlon	S88	2.1	94.5	June 13th 2008	40%	S 33.36°	E 138.71°

The first Hallett turbine; from Bundaleer forest This was in place by March 2007, construction on the other turbines started around August.

The capacity factor above was calculated from AEMO data (July 2009 to December 2012 inclusive) and is among the best I have calculated for Australian wind farms.

This wind farm is about 15 km East of Hallett (map) and consists of 45 turbines each of 2.1 MW, it was officially commissioned on June 13th 2008, although was largely operational several months earlier. I believe that it is owned by a superannuation company and its power is being bought by AGL.

A company named Wind Prospect first proposed the farm and did initial work on assessing the wind resource and planning a possible layout.

Further data on Brown Hill Range Wind Farm

Cost of development	$5.4m
Cost of construction	$227.5m
Cost of first 2 years operations	$10.5m

The turbines are Suzlon S-88 2.1 MW machines and the farm was constructed by Suzlon. The Suzlon parent company is based in Pune, India.

For directions to Brown Hill Range go to ExplorOz.

Brendan Ryan (of Suzlon) informed me that they used Brett Lane and Associates of Melbourne for bird and bat monitoring. Lane et al apparently wrote the wind industry's 'best practice' recommendations for bird and bat monitoring.

I must express my thanks to Peter Reed and Brendan Ryan of Suzlon for their help in keeping me informed and showing me around this wind farm.

Air navigation lights

Bright air navigation lights were installed on perhaps 20 of the towers at Brown Hill Range shortly after construction. These lights were turned off around the end of 2009, and seem not likely to be turned back on.

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Brown Hill Range

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Brown Hill Range Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Community funding

AGL have established a Community Fund program of $15 000 per year; this is $333 per turbine per year and is indexed to the CPI.

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Also see Brown Hill Range Wind Farm photos, notes on visiting. More information on the wind farm is given on the Suzlon site. A 623kB pdf file is available at "http://www.suzlon.com/images/common/AGL Hallett Wind Farm project profile.pdf".

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Updated 2013/06/16

Hallett Hill Wind Farm

(One of the Hallett group, Hallett #2)

Some of the Hallett Hill turbines with one of the few remnant sheoak (Allocasuarina stricta) trees in the foreground

Hallett Hill summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Capacity factor	Completed	Lat	Long	Cost
Operating	34	Suzlon	S88	2.1	71.4	41%	Late 2009	S 33.55°	E 138.86°	$166m

The capacity factor above was calculated from AEMO data (July 2009 to December 2012 inclusive) and is among the best I have calculated for Australian wind farms.

Working on the works depot for Hallett Hill Wind Farm 2008/08/25 Several turbines completed Photographed from Clare, 40 km away 2009/04/01

A copy of AGL's location map is above; for directions to Hallett Hill go to ExplorOz.

Hallett Hill Wind Farm is about 15 km South of Hallett and a very few kilometres west of the township of Mount Bryan. It is the only farm of the Hallett group owned by ANZ (through fully-owned subsidiaries Energy Infrastructure Trust and Infrastructure Capital Group Ltd).

ABC on-line news, 2008/08/29, reported that:

"Energy company AGL has sold its wind farm near Burra in the mid-north of South Australia in a deal it says is worth $59 million. Energy Infrastructure Trust will own the Hallett Hill Wind Farm and fund the rest of the project's construction. But AGL will operate and maintain the wind farm and buy all the electricity produced."

The wind farm was constructed by Suzlon using Suzlon S-88 V3 turbines. I believe the tube sections of the towers were manufactured in Adelaide.

Turbine shut-down

AGL shut down 16 of the 34 turbines at Hallett Hill from 7pm to 7am. I only heard about this in late 2011, but AGL talk of "becoming aware of the tonality problem in December 2010" Their press release included the following...

"AGL Energy (AGL), operator of the Hallett Hill wind farm (Hallett 2) in mid-north South Australia near the township of Mt Bryan, has taken a range of steps to deal with a noise complaint at Hallett 2. During commissioning of Hallett 2, which consists of 34 x 2.1 MW wind turbines, extensive noise testing and monitoring was carried out by specialist noise consultants to determine compliance with noise guidelines. When a resident neighbouring the wind farm raised concerns about noise, AGL engaged a specialist noise consultant to assess noise conditions at the residence. During the second round of noise testing at the residence, preliminary results showed that some audible tones were detected under certain conditions. Upon becoming aware of the tonality issue in December 2010, AGL promptly shut down a number of wind turbines in proximity to the residence. Sixteen (16) of the 34 turbines are currently shut down at night. AGL has been working with the turbine supplier to rectify the defect and co-ordinate testing with the neighbouring resident. The supplier has developed a permanent acoustic treatment to address the tonality issue."

On 2012/01/05 I received the following from Adam Mackett, AGL's man in charge of Hallett Hill Wind Farm:

"The sixteen wind turbines were shutdown in late October and progressively returned to full operation after the permanent acoustic treatment was installed at each turbine."

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Hallett Hill

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Hallett Hill Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Air navigation lights

Bright air navigation lights were installed on a number of the towers at Hallett Hill shortly after construction. These lights were turned off around the end of 2009, and seem not likely to be turned back on.

Further data on Hallett Hill Wind Farm Cost of development $3.0m Cost of construction $189.1m Cost of first half year's operations $3.1m Hub height 80m Max. blade tip height 124m Swept area of each turbine 0.6ha No. truck journeys during construction 1240 High tension cable for rock-anchor footings 130 km Rock trenching for 33kV reticulation 17 km Concrete used 3400m3 Steel for towers 5800 t Underground cable 17 km Overhead cable 10 km Total weight of material transported to site 10 350t This information was from Suzlon and AGL

Community funding

AGL have established a Community Fund program of $15 000 per year; this is $441 per turbine per year and is indexed to the CPI.

Speech from a Mount Bryan resident

At the Lions Club in February 2013, Anita Butcher gave a speech as a part of the Youth of the Year selection process. Ms Butcher lives in Mount Bryan, 3km from the turbines of Hallett Hill Wind Farm.

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Updated 2012/08/21 Mount Bryan Wind Farm (One of the Hallett group, Hallett #3) This project has had a quite complex history in several law courts. AGL has announced (August 2012) that wind turbine technology has significantly changed since the earlier Development Application to the point where they need to cease legal activity on the old DA and submit a new one. Summary data for Mount Bryan Wind Farm Status No. of turbines MW each Total MW Construction date Lat Long Proposed 33? ? ? Unknown S 33.43° E 138.96° The details of this proposal are undecided – see note above

The wind farm area; Hallett is on the left. (Google Earth) The wind turbines are to be built on the ridge-tops on the right two-thirds of the image.

Mount Bryan Wind Farm is to be built near Mount Bryan (the hill, not the township), about 5 km East of Hallett, and about 12 km NNE of Mount Bryan township (map).

There has been some concern over a remnant stand of Eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus globulus bicostata) in this area (April 2008). It seems that this particular stand of trees could be up to 4000 years old. Sandra Kanck (then South Australian Democrat MLC) said that the stand of trees is only 20m from one of the proposed turbines. (I believe the site of this turbine has been moved because of these trees.) While this stand of E. globulus bicostata may be the only one known in South Australia, the species is common in the Otway Ranges in Victoria.

	A general view of the Mount Bryan area The brownish area on the distant hill-side is soil bared by overgrazing
	From the Heysen Trail, Mount Bryan Soil bared by overgrazing is conspicuous in the lower half of this photo.

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Several people who are opposed to wind farms in the Hallett area have claimed that there will be much damage to native vegetation if the Mount Bryan Wind Farm is built; both the aerial view and two photos on the right show that there is practically no scrub right on the ridge-tops. The area has been subject to sheep grazing for well over a hundred years and the native vegetation is greatly degraded; as shown particularly in the lower photo on the right.

An email from Tim Knill of AGL Energy (12th March 2010) included the following on ecology: "there are some patches of native grass/shrubs but very few trees on the ridge tops. Any unavoidable clearance of native vegetation will require conservation set-aside areas to be established. We expect that all trees will be protected."

The Heysen Trail passes over Mount Bryan and on to Hallett (through the broader valley in the lower right of the aerial view). I walked this section of the Trail on 30th August 2010. The view on the upper right is fairly typical of the Mount Bryan range. There are more large gums in some of the lower areas, there are more shrubs on some of the hill-sides, there is more conspicuous damage from over-grazing in some areas (lower photo). I am informed by a reliable source (Millie Nicholls) that the shrubs, which are very common in the area, are Melicytus dentata, common name tree violet. These all appeared to be very heavily grazed. (I have other images of the Mount Bryan area if anyone needs them.)

Once built the wind farm will make this section of the Heysen Trail much more popular because it will present an opportunity for people to walk a dedicated walking trail close to, and among, a group of modern wind turbines. I cannot think of any comparable opportunity elsewhere. Providing this first hand experience – seeing and hearing wind turbines at close range – to many people must help educate the public on the facts of wind turbine sound levels and visual impact.

At various points along this section of the Heysen Trail there are views of the Hallett Hill Wind Farm, some seven kilometres to the SW, and the more distant Brown Hill Range wind farms to the NW.

Further data on Mount Bryan Wind Farm

Expected CO2 abatement	256 000 tonnes per year
Payback time for embodied energy	About six months
Average wind speed at hub height	About 9.0 metres per second
Expected capacity factor	43%

Mount Bryan wind farm is expected to be one of the most productive (in proportion to its size) in Australia.

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Updated 2013/06/16

North Brown Hill Wind Farm

(One of the Hallett group, Hallett #4)

Summary data for North Brown Hill Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Capacity factor	Completion	Lat	Long
Operating	63	Suzlon	S88	2.1	132.3	39%	Early 2011	S 33.19°	E 138.75°

The capacity factor is calculated from AEMO data for January 2011 to December 2012 inclusive. Note that fine tuning was happening during this period.

This wind farm is about 23 km from Hallett (map) and immediately north of the Brown Hill Range Wind Farm (Hallett #1). Wind Prospect has quite a detailed Net page about the project and you may find information about the project on AGL's site.

First power into the grid was 2010/08/14. As of 2010/10/20 all turbines have been fully erected, one section has been handed over to AGL and other sections were going through reliability testing and commissioning. Power fed into the national grid was still increasing, but the best so far was more than 70 MW.

Further data on North Brown Hill Development cost $5.4m Construction cost $333.5m Turbine type Suzlon S-88 V3 2.1 MW Long term average wind speed 8.5M/sec. The information on this table was from AGL's Net site.

EcoGeneration, 2009/10/12 ran a news article stating that AGL had sold North Brown Hill (Hallett #4) to the Energy Infrastructure Investments consortium.

North Brown Hill will be one of the the biggest wind farm in SA and in Australia.

Ward Civil won the contract for the footings of North Brown Hill and, I believe, made rock anchor bases that are smaller than previously used in the area. I believe they took around 50 cubic metres of concrete each and are 1.4m deep rather than the 2.3m deep bases Built Environs designed ones for earlier Hallett wind farms.

AGL sold this wind farm to the Energy Infrastructure Investments consortium about October 2009.

There are some more recent photos of some of the North Brown Hill turbines on another page on this site.

A misty morning at North Brown Hill
The nearer turbine was operating, the others did not have enough breeze

	Early generation Generation ramping up at North Brown Hill, data to 2010/11/16
	Generation record Generation record for North Brown Hill Wind Farm Up to end 2012

Generation record for North Brown Hill

The graphs on the right show the power generation record for North Brown Hill Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The upper graph shows average generation in the early period of operation. The lower graph shows average megawatts generated month by month over a longer period.

Community funding

AGL have established a Community Fund program of $15 000 per year; this is $238 per turbine per year and is indexed to the CPI.

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Updated 2019/02/18

Willogoleche Wind Farm
Also called Willogoleche Wind Farm

(One of the original Hallett group proposed by Wind Prospect in the Burra/Jamestown area.)

News, 2017/08/06 Andrew Turner of ENGIE informed me by email that work is already underway on "hard-stands, roads, supporting infrastructure etc." A press release stated that "Installation of turbines is scheduled to start by the end of the year. News, 2017/08/05 Sophie Vorrath reported on RenewEconomy, 2017/08/04, about the imminent construction of this wind farm following an agreement between ENGIE and GE Australia. In the article Ms Vorrath quoted GE Australia chief Geoff Culbert, "This will be our fourth wind farm to begin construction in 2017" and "It is encouraging to see more projects like this reach financial close, and we look forward to continuing to bring the best renewables technology to Australia." I could find nothing by GE Australia about the project on the Net, but ENGIE has a page about the project. Blade tip height is to be 150m, rotor diameter 130m.

Status	No. of turbines	Turbine capacity	Total MW	Construction started	Completion due	Lat	Long
Construction	32	8 units of 3.4MW 24 units of 3.8MW	119	July 2017	Early 2019?	S 33.41°	E 138.84°

A post on ABC on-line news, 2011/07/14, stated that a proposed extension of from 26 turbines to 37 turbines was approved by the Goyder Council. ABC News, 2011/12/08, reported that an appeal against the increased number of turbines by six Mid-North residents had been withdrawn after an out-of-court agreement between them and the developer. Community funding ENGIE intend to provide community funding once the wind farm is operating.

Updated 2018/08/01

Hornsdale Wind Farm

Location of Hornsdale Image credit Investec Bank A higher resolution map is available on the Hornsdale Net site

Investec Bank (Australia) Limited proposed this wind farm in the area between Appila, Tarcowie, Mannanarie and Jamestown, in the Mid-North of SA; later it was taken over by French company Neoen and local group Megawatt Capital. At the closest point it is about 10 km NNW from Jamestown. Investec have a Net site on the project. A map of the boundaries of the wind farm is included on the Net site.

There are power-purchase agreements (PPAs) between Neoen and the ACT government for each of the three stages of the wind farm. The ACT government is aiming to have 90% renewable energy by 2020. The first PPA was signed on or about 2015/02/06 for a price of Aus$92/MWh. The second PPA was signed in December 2015 at Australia's then lowest known contract price of Aus$77/MWh; the third was later signed for an even lower price of Aus$73/MWh.

The electricity generated will go to a sub-station on site, then to the existing 275 kV power transmission line that runs through the area.

There are some more recent photos of some of the Hornsdale turbines on another page on this site.

The Hornsdale (Tesla) Big Battery

Hornsdale (Tesla) Big Battery Unfortunately it is not possible to get closer to the Big Battery than about 500m on a public road. Photographed 2018/01/14 by my drone

The "Tesla Big Battery", installed at Hornsdale, has had huge media coverage. It is said to be the biggest in the world at 100 MW maximum power and energy storage of 129 MWh. It was completed in December 2017.

The formal name of the Big Battery is the Hornsdale Power Reserve. Neoen has a Net page on the HPR that includes a widget giving an up-to-the-minute record of power input and output.

As there seems to be a lot of misinformation about the Big Battery (much of which has been quite intentionally misleading), it is worth stating that it will not store enough energy to supply the state if other electricity supplies fail; it is not designed to do that. As explained in The Conversation by Ariel Liebman and Kaveh Rijab Khalilpour, 2017/07/11, it is designed to support grid stability.

The Conversation has several articles about the Big Battery, this one is particularly interesting; "A month in, Tesla's SA battery is surpassing expectations".

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Neoen contacts for inquiries: Email: enquiries@hornsdalewindfarm.com.au
Phone: 1800 015 398
Fax: 02 9293 2322

Community funding

Neoen have promised $80,000 per year for funding community projects for the life of the project.

I wish to thank Robert Ongley for keeping me up to date on Hornsdale (and a number of other projects).

Summary data, Hornsdale Wind Farm

	Status	# Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction started	Completion	Lat.	Long.
Full project	Operating	99	3.2	315	January 2016	December 2017	S 33.05°	E 138.54°
First stage	Operating	32	3.2	102	January 2016	November 2016
Second stage	Operating	32	3.2	102	Last quarter 2016	June 2017
Third stage	Operating	35	3.2	112	Early 2017	Mid December 2017

The turbines are all Siemens direct drive. It seems that the maximum generation, of the whole project as well as the individual stages, is limited to a figure slightly lower than the total of the installed capacity of the individual turbines.

Additional data on Hornsdale Wind Farm

Owner/operator	Neoen and Megawatt Capital
Project cost	Aus$900 million
Annual generation	1050 GWh expected
CO2 abated	1 250 000 tonnes per annum expected
Operating life	25 years expected
Total height	150 m, to blade tip (max.)

Hornsdale – construction
Photo taken 2016/06/02 with a drone Jamestown is just visible top left

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Updated 2013/12/08

Keyneton Wind Farm

Approval of this wind farm by the state government was announced on 2013/12/06. Landscape Guardian Tony Walker vows to take the approval to court.

Pacific Hydro are proposing this wind farm near the township of Keyneton which is about 65 km NE of Adelaide in the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Six landholders have agreed to host the turbines.

The wind farm will not have aviation lighting. Pacific Hydro say that "the site boundary is approximately three kilometres east of Keyneton and that it will connect to the grid via a transmission line that crosses the site.

It is expected that the turbines will be at least 1.5 km from the nearest homes. Pacific Hydro have run at least two public information sessions.

I have independent information that there isn't much remnant vegetation that will be affected. "The area has been grazed for 150 years and there isn't much left." The same source informed me that Pacific Hydro have done "a particularly good job of consulting the community".

Summary data on Keyneton Wind Farm

Status	# Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat.	Long.
Approved	42	2 to 3	Up to 130	Not before 2015	S 34.56°	E 139.09°

There were originally 57 turbines proposed.

Community funding

Pacific Hydro are one of the more generous companies in regard to Community Funds.

Updated 2018/08/15

Lake Bonney wind farms

Update 2018/08/15 Sophie Vorrath for Renew Economy reported today that a 25 MW/52 MWh Tesla battery would be added to the Lake Bonney wind farms.

In the Southeast of South Australia near Millicent, this group of wind farms follows a line of stabilised sand dunes parallel to the coast, in a NW-SE direction.

The owner was Babcock and Brown Wind Partners, more recently N.P. Power and Infigen Energy. Obtaining information on these wind farms is particularly difficult.

The individual Lake Bonney wind farms...

Name	MW	Status (Dec. 2009)
Lake Bonney Stage 1	80.5	Operating
Lake Bonney Stage 2	159.0	Operating
Lake Bonney Stage 3	39.0	Operating
Total	278.5

As of February 2012 the Lake Bonney wind farms, combined, had the second highest installed capacity of any wind farms in Australia (after the Hallett group), however, because of the poor capacity factors achieved, both the Hallett (SA) and Waubra (Vic.) wind farms generate more electricity.

All three stages connect to the transmission grid via the 132kV Mayurra substation.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Lake Bonney Stage 1 wind farm

This farm is located on the Woakwine Range about 2 km from the eastern shore of Lake Bonney, near Millicent. For directions to Lake Bonney Wind Farm go to ExplorOz.

Summary data for Lake Bonney Stage 1

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	46	Vestas	V66	1.75	80.5	March 2005	26%	S 37.71°	E 140.38°

The capacity factor above was calculated from AEMO data (March 2009 to December 2012 inclusive) and downloaded via the ALG Net site.

Wind turbines of Canunda/Lake Bonney

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Lake Bonney photos, notes on visiting.

In the Australian Electricity Generation Report of 2008, available from Australian Policy Online, this wind farm is listed as the ninth largest renewable energy power station in mainland eastern Australia, and the fourth largest wind farm, by generation for 2008, generating 204 MWh.

More data on Lake Bonney Stage 1

The project
The resource
Average wind speed	More than 7m/sec. at hub height
The turbines
Turbine type	Vestas V66, 1.75 MW
Diameter of rotor	66m
Blade length	Approx. 32m
Blade material	Fibreglass
Tower height	67m
Tower material	Steel

Much of the data in this table came from Miles George of Infigen Energy.

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 1

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 1 Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Community funding

An inquiry was sent to Infigen Energy 2010/09/19.

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Updated 2013/06/16

Lake Bonney Stage 2 wind farm

Owned by Infigen Energy, who had a Net page on the farm, but it's no longer available.

Lake Bonney Stage 2 summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	53	Vestas	V90	3	159	September 2008	25%	S 37.81°	E 140.41°

The capacity factor above was calculated from AEMO data (August 2009 to December 2012 inclusive) and downloaded via the ALG Net site.

This wind farm commenced full commercial operation in September 2008. In the Australian Electricity Generation Report of 2008, available from Australian Policy Online, this wind farm is listed as the third largest renewable energy power station in mainland eastern Australia, and the largest wind farm, by generation for 2008, generating 373 MWh.

More data on Lake Bonney Stage 2

The Project
Cost	Approx. Aus$400 million
The resource
Average wind speed	More than 7m/sec. at hub height
The turbines
Turbine type	Vestas V90 3 MW
Tower height, to hub	78m
Tower material	Steel
Rotor diameter	90m
Blade length	Approx. 44m
Blade material	Fibreglass

Much of the data in this table came from Miles George of Infigen Energy.

Generation record Up to end 2012

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Generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 2

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 2 Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Lake Bonney Stage 3 Wind Farm

This stage is, like the other two, close to Lake Bonney and is owned by Infigen Energy (who have taken over the business of the old Babcock and Brown Wind Partners).

While Infigen seem not to have a Net page on this project, Aurecon do.

Lake Bonney Stage 2 summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	13	Vestas	V90	3	39	December 2009	26%	S ?°	E ?°

The capacity factor was calculated from AEMO data for the period from August 2010 to December 2012 inclusive.

The turbines are Vestas V90 models, 3 MW each.

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 3

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Lake Bonney Stage 3 Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Lincoln Gap Wind Farm

Update 2022/01/02 I believe that the second stage is completed and fully operational or close to it. The capacity of the two stages combined is 212MW. A third stage is proposed; if built it will bring the total capacity to 464MW.

I was informed on 2019/02/18 that three turbines had been erected and that more were to be erected soon. The commissioning stage of the substation was underway and some turbines would be commissioned not long after the substation was completed.

The wind farm was first mooted at least as early as September 2009. In mid December 2018 it was announced that construction of the 24 turbines of the second stage would commence soon.

I had an email from Nexif on 2018/10/30. The project manager, Ben Williams, informed me that "because of the delay [see box on the right] we are at an accelerated level of construction activity."

Nexif Energy, the proponent of the wind farm, has a net page about the project.

Summary data for Lincoln Gap

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Battery	Construction date	Expected completion	Lat	Long
Construction	59	3.6MW	212	10 MW, 10 MWh	January 2018	Mid 2019	S 32.53°	E 137.56°

The coordinates above were based on the location on a OneWind Net page – which seems to no longer be available

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Updated 2011/04/02

Myponga/Sellicks Hill wind farm

Trust Power proposed this wind farm to be built south of Sellicks beach and north of Myponga, near Mount Terrible and Mount Jeffcott, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Trust Power's Net site seems not to have been updated for a long time.

Summary data

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat	Long
Abandoned	16	2.1?	33.6?	Unknown	S 35.38°	E 138.44°

Shortly after it being reported that construction would start in early 2010 the South Australian Government announced that it has refused to vary major development approval of the wind farm (Trust Power wanted to build taller towers, 110m high). Subsequently Trust Power stated they would drop the project. This all happened in late August, early September 2009.

In January 2011 SA Planning Minister Paul Holloway said that it is no longer appropriate to grant further extension of the development approval.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Mount Millar wind farm

Owned by Meridian Power of New Zealand, an interesting article can be found on the Eyre Peninsula Tribune site. (Mount Millar Wind Farm was developed by Tarong, then sold to Transfield, and passed to Meridian in May 2010.)
Mount Millar summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	35	Enercon	E70	2	70	December 2005	30%	S 33.63°	E 136.68°

The capacity factor above was taken from AEMO data via the ALG Net pages and uses data from January 2009 to December 2012 inclusive.

One of the Mount Millar wind turbines near Cowell and Cleve, South Australia; at sunset

Mount Millar is a 70 MW wind farm in the Cowell-Cleve area of Eyre Peninsula, about 220 km NW of Adelaide, as the crow flies. For directions to Mount Millar go to ExplorOz.

This wind farm was previously called Yabmana. It is built along seven kilometres of hill-top roughly between Cowell and Cleve. (It is sign-posted from the Cowell-Cleve road.)

The Eyre Peninsula Tribune, on 14th March 2006, stated that construction of this wind farm started in late 2004 and was completed in December 2005. Power started being generated on February 28th 2006.

This is an interesting and scenic wind farm to visit. Most of the turbines are quite close to a public road along a ridge top with good views over Spencer Gulf.

Some of the Mount Millar wind turbines; late afternoon You can see more photos of Mount Millar Wind Farm.

More data on Mount Millar Wind Farm

Project cost	Aust$130 million
Footings
Footing type	Mass
Mass footing rely on their weight to hold the turbine in place, rather than the alternative of bolting them to the bedrock.
Footing diameter	20m
Material in footings	40 tonnes of steel and 800t of concrete.
Turbines
Turbine type	Enercon E70
Gearing	No gearbox, direct drive, see below
Tower height, to hub	85m
Total height to blade tip	120m

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Mount Millar

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Mount Millar Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Community funding

I sent an inquiry to Meridian on 2010/10/10, received a reply on 2010/10/29, but no mention of whether Meridian provides money for a community fund for the Mount Millar community.

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Annular generator The Mount Millar Wind Farm is different to other SA wind farms in that the turbines do not have gear boxes; this, presumably, is why the nacelle of these turbines has a larger diameter than most. A quote from the manufacturer, Enercon... "The annular generator is of primary importance in the gearless system design of ENERCON wind turbines. Combined with the rotor hub it provides an almost frictionless flow of energy, while the gentle running of fewer moving components guarantees minimal material wear. Unlike conventional asynchronous generators, the ENERCON annular generator is subjected to minimal mechanical wear, which makes it ideal for particularly heavy demands and a long service life. The ENERCON annular generator is a low-speed synchronous generator with no direct grid coupling. The output voltage and frequency vary with the speed and are converted for output to the grid by a DC link and inverter. This achieves a high degree of speed variability." The Stage 2 of Snowtown Wind Farm also has generators without gear boxes.

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Edited 2018/08/10

Palmer Wind Farm

Palmer Wind Farm; possible turbine layout Map credit Trust Power

News, 9thMarch 2018 The ERD Court disallowed appeals against the wind farm, but the decision was still open to appeal to a higher court. Tilt was hoping for a final decision by the end of the month. Links: Law firm's summary of the decision, ERD Court's ruling.

This wind farm, proposed by Tilt Renewables (previously named Trust Power), if built, will extend from south-west of Cambrai 30km southward along the ridge lines of the eastern Mount Lofty Ranges to a point south-west of Palmer. Tilt Renewables has some information on a Net page about their projects and proposals. Trust Power runs the highly successful Snowtown Wind Farm (two stages, total installed capacity 371MW).

Summary data, Palmer Wind Farm

Status	# Turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction date	Lat.	Long.
Approved	103	3+?	About 342	?	Approx. S 34.77°	E 139.19°

Additional data on Palmer Wind Farm

Owner/operator	Trust Power
Capital cost	$700m?
Total height (to blade tip)	165m
No. employed during construction	250 to 300
No. employed during operation	About 15
Annual generation	1050 GWh (assuming CF=35%)
CO2 abated	About a million tonnes per year

The controversy The Palmer Wind Farm has brought out some vociferous opposition. I have written a page of commentary on some of the allegations against the projects and have started a page on Facebook aimed at open debate.

The information above was extracted mainly from the Trust Power Net pages.

It seems there is some level of local opposition. The people of Snowtown, where the first stage wind farm was completed in 2008, seem very happy with their wind farm. It is notable that early wind farms were built in SA with very little opposition and continue to receive local approval, while newly proposed wind farms raise objections. No doubt this is largely due to successful disinformation campaigns by wind power opposition groups and individuals.

More equible financial benefit?

The Barossa Herald carried an article on 2013/12/17 in which they reported that Trust Power were proposing to give a direct benefit to neighbours of the wind farm.

"It will comprise of annual payments based on a sliding scale, with a minimum of $2000 per annum, depending on the number of turbines ultimately constructed within 1km of a property boundary or 2km of a residence should the project go ahead."

It will be interesting to see what happens here, what effect the proposal might have on the acceptance of the wind farm by neighbours, and whether it will be picked up by other wind farm operators.

It has been suggested that some sort of gift of shares in the project would be preferable to cash payouts as it would give the receiver an interest in the running and profitability of the wind farm.

Location of the proposed project Image credit DP Energy Australia

Update January 2020 It has been reported that construction is to start in June 2020.

This project has been proposed by DP Energy Australia (DPEA), who have a Net page on the project. DPEA state that they have lodged a Development Application with the SA Department of State Development (apparently in early December 2015).

It received approval from the state government in August 2016.

The map at the right shows that the wind farm will be on both sides of the Port Augusta to Port Pirie highway (from upper left to lower centre of the map). Upper Spencer Gulf is on the left and the lower slopes of the Flinders Range can just be seen on the right of the map.

On 2015/12/04 the DPEA Home Page included a photo taken near Wilpena, about 130km from the proposed wind farm.

The solar PV array has been proposed to cover 400 hectares. The total capacity of the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park (PAEP) has been given as 375MW.

DP Energy estimate that the completed energy park will generate about 1000 GWh of clean energy each year, saving 470 thousand tonnes of greenhouse carbon dioxide emissions.

In mid December it was reported in The Transcontinental (Port Augusta) that "DP Energy is set to lodge a development application for Stage 2 of the $600million Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park."
"The second stage adds additional solar capacity, as well as battery storage capacity of 300 MW and 400 MW [MWh?] to the energy park, while also providing the option for synchronous condensers."

My own opinion

I would not like to see wind turbines between the main road and the Flinders Range. This is one of the few wind farms that I'd prefer was not built; or at least the part between the road and the range.

There are some views and areas that should be 'sacred'.

Updated 2020/07/08

Summary data for Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park Stage 1 wind farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction due	Lat	Long
Approved	50	4.2	210?	June 2020	Approx. S 32.592°	E 137.891°

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This section written 2010/01/14

Robe Wind Farm

(Wind farm name uncertain)

This proposed wind farm is interesting for it's large size and the fact that the proposal came from a group of 30 farmers who recognised the potential on their land. Michael McCourt, of Beachport, is heading the project on behalf of the farmers.

The agreement by Macquarie Capital Group Ltd. to take "responsibility for all of the ongoing development activities for the proposed wind farm" (reported in Border Watch, 2009/12/22) is very significant because it indicates that financial backing has been obtained; always a hugely important mile-stone for any wind farm development.

Summary data for Robe Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Completion due	Lat	Long
Proposed	?	?	600	Undecided	Approx. S 37.11°	E 139.80°

The wind farm is to be built on the Woakwine Range between Beachport and Mount Benson. Beachport is 78 km NW of Mount Gambier, Mount Benson is about 60 km NNW of Beachport.

I suspect that substantial upgrading of the power transmission system will be needed before the project can proceed.

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Updated 2014/04/16

Robertstown Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Completion due	Lat	Long
Abandoned	30 to 35	3?	90 to 105?	-	Approx. 33.99°	139.10°

Robertstown, Stony Gap, and Waterloo Wind Farm locations Image from Roaring 40s

Energy Australia decided that a wind farm on this site would be unviable, and announced that on 2014/04/14. Several reasons have been given by EA and others. I will not speculate.

Robertstown is 50 km ESE of Clare, 21 km north of Eudunda, and 110 km NNE of Adelaide; the wind farm is about 6 km west of the Robertstown township. The proponent was originally Tasmania-based Roaring 40s, but when this was disbanded it was transferred to Energy Australia.

It was earlier reported that this and Stony Gap Wind Farm were to be extensions of Waterloo Wind Farm, but in fact Energy Australia are treating all three as separate projects.

In early 2012 Energy Australia, under its older name, TRUenergy, released a locally conducted opinion survey concerning its existing and proposed Mid-North wind farms. More detail under links.

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Community Liaison Group

Energy Australia have established a Community Liaison Group concerning its three Mid-North wind farms. The group meets every second month and brings together many interested local people with TRUenergy staff and experts in various fields relevant to wind power. (I, David Clarke, the author of these pages, am a member of the group.)

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Edited 2017/08/11

Snowtown Wind Farm

This section discusses Snowtown Stage 1. Stage 2 is discussed below.
As of mid 2018 the two stages combined were generating more power than any other wind farm in Australia.

This wind farm is on the top of the north-south trending Barunga Range west and north-west of Snowtown and about 150 km north of Adelaide. The closest turbines are around seven kilometres from the town. For directions to Snowtown go to ExplorOz.

So far as I know, there has never been any local opposition to this project, and as mentioned below, the people of Snowtown and district seem very happy with their local wind farm. (I live fifty kilometres away.)

A company named Wind Prospect originally proposed up to 105 wind turbines each of 2 MW. When the first stage was built there were 47 turbines, a prototype S95 was added in July 2011. A major extension was built from 2012 to 2014 increasing the total installed capacity to 370.8MW; see Snowtown Stage 2.

Snowtown Stage 1 summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	First power to grid	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	48	Suzlon	S88	2.1	100.8	March 2008	Early September 2008	41%	S 33.75°	E 138.13°
The S95 turbine added in July 2011 increased the installed capacity from 98.7 MW.

The capacity factor was calculated from AEMO data from July 2009 to December 2012 inclusive, is the best I have calculated for any Australian wind farm (as of December 2012) and is very good by world standards. It takes into account the 48th turbine added in July 2011. (The average capacity factor for south-eastern Australian wind farms is about 35%.) Following construction of Snowtown 2, the capacity factor of Snowtown 1 fell to around 39% (figures from AEMO's SA Renewable Energy Report for 2016).

The first turbine of the Snowtown Wind Farm 2007/12/28

Additional data on Snowtown Wind Farm

Owner	Trust Power Ltd.
Operator	Suzlon
Project cost	Aust$220 million
Expected output	350 GWh/yr
Greenhouse gas savings	345 000t/yr
Turbine type	47 Suzlon S88-2.1 MW 1 Suzlon S95-2.1 MW
Tower height (to hub)	80m
Height to blade tip	124m
Rotational speed	15 to 17.6RPM
Rotor diameter	88m
Speed at blade tip	69 to 81m/sec. or 249 to 292 km/hr

Fog streaming between turbines at Snowtown Wind Farm 2008/05/05

While Trust Power own this wind farm, the Indian based company Suzlon built it, operate it and maintain the turbines.

The contract calls for a minimum availability of 97%; that is, as I understand it, total turbine/hours of downtime must be no more than 3% of the total turbine/hours in a year.

The wind farm started feeding power into the grid in December 2007 and was officially opened on 2nd November 2008. In the Australian Electricity Generation Report of 2008, available from Australian Policy Online, this wind farm is listed as the eleventh largest renewable energy power station in mainland eastern Australia, and the fifth largest wind farm, by generation for 2008, generating 195 MWh.

Some of my photos of Snowtown Wind Farm are on another page.

Air navigation lights

Snowtown Wind Farm had air navigation lights on about 40% of its turbines from the time it was built. The lights are finally to be turned off progressively through August and September, 2011 (according to an article in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 2011/08/09). I noticed on 2012/03/01 that they were no longer on.

Suzlon S95 prototype turbine under construction

The photo on the right was taken on 2011/06/28 of the construction of the Suzlon S95 prototype turbine. It was operating a month or so later.

Community funding

Trust Power are not generous with community funding, providing $15 000 per year or $313 per turbine per year (less than any other wind farm I know of other than Canunda in SE SA).

Phil Barry, CEO of Wakefield Regional Council informed me that Trust Power was the majority funder of the wind farm tourist information display at Snowtown and that the total project value was about $120 000.

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Snowtown

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Snowtown Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

The output of Snowtown Wind Farm is expected to decline by 19GWh/year (4.9%) following construction of Snowtown 2 due to wind shading.

Powering TREV around the world

The developers of TREV (Two-seat Renewable Energy Vehicle) bought power from the Snowtown Wind Farm to power TREV on a 'Race around the World'. TREV was expected to use 2.1 MWh of electricity in total; that is one hour's generation from one of the Snowtown turbines at full power.

The Snowtown people are proud of their wind farm

Sign on the highway at Snowtown

The people of Snowtown, so far as I know, have always been very supportive of their wind farm. And they have good reason to be.

Snowtown is a small town, it is home to about 400 people, but it is doing far more than its share in the fight against out-of-control climate change.

Snowtown Wind Farm is abating around 345 000 tonnes of greenhouse carbon dioxide each year. The Garnaut report showed that Australia's CO2 emissions were 28 tonnes per person in 2006, so the Snowtown wind farm is abating the emissions from around twelve thousand Australians! A praise-worthy achievement for a small town.

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Snowtown Wind Farm, Stage 2

Update 2019/12/05 Snowtown Stage 2 was sold by Tilt Renewables to Palisade Investment Partners Limited and First State Super in December 2019 for $1.07 billion "in the biggest single transaction of its type in the country"; apparently more than some expected. See RenewEconomy.

The completed Snowtown Wind Farm, first and second stages; 2014/06/11
Most of the turbines of Snowtown 2 are mixed in with Snowtown 1; the Snowtown 2 turbines have a larger diameter (the difference can be seen in the high definition image). Most of the turbine on top of the ridge are of Snowtown 1; those on the spurs and on the far left are Snowtown 2 turbines. Click on the image to view full size; use your browser's back arrow to come back to this page after viewing.

At the official opening of the wind farm, 2014/11/02

Updated 2015/11/20

The wind farm was fully generating around the beginning of July, 2014.

Trust Power has a Net page for Snowtown Stage 2. The expected capital cost was Aus$439 million.

Also see Snowtown WF Stage 1

At the end of 2012 total installed wind power in Australia was 2576MW. This project alone increased that amount by more than 10%. It increased the amount of installed capacity in SA by 22% (from 1205 to 1495MW) and in Mid-North SA by 44% (from 619 to 889MW).

There has been an unconfirmed report that landholders were to be paid a total of $2.4 million per year. This is $26 666 per year per turbine and if true is much higher than I have heard of for other wind farms. Trust Power would not confirm it, stating that it was confidential.

An idea of the scale of the job of transporting the tubine parts to the wind farm site was given by the statement that "If you laid out the rotor blades alone end to end they would form a road train about 13 kilometers long."

Combined with Snowtown Stage 1, this wind farm will save 700 000 tonnes of greenhouse CO2 per year.

Snowtown Stage 2 summary data Status No. of turbines Manufacturer Model MW each Total MW Construction started Commissioned Capacity factor Operating 90 Siemens 10×S101 80×S108 3 270 August 2012 July 2014 37%

When Snowtown Stage 2 was built the total installed power of the Snowtown wind farms became 371 MW, making it the biggest in SA and second biggest in Australia. The capacity factor above was extracted from the AEMO SA Renewable Energy Report of 2016; it is for the 2015/16 financial year.

The Siemens turbines are direct drive (no gearbox) with a perminant magnet generator, 10 turbines have a rotor diameter of 101m and the remaining 80 have a rotor of 108m diameter (bigger than any in previously built in SA). The turbines with the smaller rotors are in the areas with stronger or more turbulent winds.

Part of the wind farm From the main road, 2014/11/02

Clayton Delmarter of Trust Power informed me on 2012/08/06 that "we didn't have a single submission against the project when we submitted our planning variations and have enjoyed great support from the community". At the sod-turning ceremony, 2012/10/25, Mayor of Wakefield Plains Council, James Maitland, said that he "was not aware of any negativity" regarding the project. This contrasts strongly with strong local opposition to several other wind farms in Mid North SA.

Trust Power ran a media release 2012/05/02 that said, among other things:

"Trust Power has entered into a power sale and purchase agreement for the output of Snowtown II with Origin Energy, which already has a purchase agreement for 89% of the Snowtown 1 facility. The Snowtown II Wind Farm, as the expansion will be known, will be located adjacent to the existing Snowtown 1 facility and comprise 90 turbines with an installed capacity of 270MW. The 3MW turbines for the expansion will be supplied by Siemens. It is intended that Snowtown Stage 2 will be split into two separately metered wind farms, 144MW which will be owned by Trust Power and 126MW by a co-investor. Trust Power will be the operator for the total Snowtown wind farm site under a long term management services arrangement. Trust Power is currently running a targeted selection process to identify a co-investor and hopes to make an announcement within the next few months."

The new turbines went mainly into three areas:

1. Most were on the highest ridges and spurs to the east of the original turbines;
2. Around 35 were south of the southernmost of the original turbines;
3. About ten filled in the gap between the two original groups.

It is not be possible for the casual observer to see where Stage 1 finishes and Stage 2 starts.

Snowtown 2 consists of two separately metered wind farms, Snowtown 2 North (144MW) and Snowtown 2 South (126 MW), sharing a single transmission line owned by Trust Power.

Expected output of Snowtown 2
	GWh/year	Cap. Factor
Snowtown 2 North	504	40.0%
Snowtown 2 South	481	43.6%
Total Snowtown 2	985	41.7%

(My figure for the capacity factor for Snowtown 1 is 41%.)

Snowtown 1 plus Snowtown 2 has a combined installed capacity of 370.8MW, making it the second biggest in Australia, following Macarthur at 420; however, the combined Snowtown WF is more productive than Macarthur. It generates more power than any other Australian wind farm. The Hallett group (operating) is close behind at 351MW.

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Community funding

Trust Power are not generouse with community funding, intending to provide $55 000 per year in total for the two stages of Snowtown. This works out at $398 per turbine per year (less than the great majority of wind farms in Australia).

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Edited 2016/04/18

Starfish Hill Wind Farm

This was owned by Transfield Infrastructure Fund, but all their wind farms were taken over by Ratch Australia Corporation.

As of April 2016 there was an agreement between the operators and Diamond Energy, an electricity retailing company.

Some of the Starfish Hill turbines viewed from Cape Jervis

Starfish Hill summary data

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Commissioned	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	22	NEG Micon	NM64	1.5	33	September 2003	27%	S 35.57°	E 138.16°

The capacity factor figure above was taken from AEMO data for June 2008 to December 2012 inclusive and based on the original 23 turbines.
(One was destroyed by fire on 2010/10/30.)

Wind turbines silhouetted against the sea at Starfish Hill, Fleurieu Peninsula

This was the first wind farm in South Australia.

It is located across two hills south of Rapid Bay, Starfish Hill and Salt Creek Hill, with 8 turbines on Starfish Hill and 15 on Salt Creek Hill. For directions to Starfish Hill go to ExplorOz.

Further data on Starfish Hill Wind Farm

Project cost	Aust$65 million
Annual production	Approx. 100 GWh
Turbine make	Neg Micon (now Vestas)
Height to turbine hub	68m
Height to blade tip	100m
Rotor diameter	64m

An interesting feature of this wind farm is that the tips of the turbine blades can be rotated independently of the remainder of the blade. This can be used to stop the turbines when needed.

Also on this Net site: Starfish Hill photos, notes on visiting.

Generation record Up to end 2012

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Generation record for Starfish Hill

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Starfish Hill Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Observations

When I visited on 2007/03/14 two turbines on Starfish Hill were out of action; all others were operational. I noticed in late January 2009 that three turbines, again on Starfish Hill, were not working; all the others were. This wind farm seems to have serious problems.

Some of the turbines made a strange sound when rotating slowly. After a time I concluded that the turbine blades must be hollow and partly filled with water which cascaded backward and forward as the turbines rotated. When they rotated at full speed the centrifugal force must have been sufficient to keep the water at the far end of the blades and stop the cascading. I have since been informed that it is unlikely that there could be water in the blades, but have heard no other explanation for the strange sound.

The fire of 2010/10/30 Image credit Fleurieu Multimedia

Fire in turbine

There was a fire in one of the Starfish Hill turbines on the afternoon of 2010/10/30. This was written up in an article in the Victor Harbor Times on 2010/11/04. The fire caused an estimated $3m damages.

It seems that this turbine was dismantled and not replaced following the fire.

Wind turbines at Starfish Hill, Cape Jervis, South Australia This was the first South Australian wind farm.

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Updated 2022/01/22

Stony Gap Wind Farm

What was to be Stony Gap Wind Farm is now a part of the Goyder South section of the much bigger Goyder Renewables Zone. Early work construction started on Goyder South in January 2022

Stony Gap Location Plan Image credit Energy Australia

News, March 2019 I was informed that Palisades, who had held the rights to the project for several years, had almost finalised the sale to another organisation.

Stony Gap is about 5 km south of Burra, 28 km east of Clare, 13 km east of Farrell Flat, and 126 km NNE of Adelaide.

Energy Australia was the original proposer of the project; Palisades took it over from them.

The project was started by Roaring 40s who held a community information session on this wind farm at the Burra Town hall on 2009/12/03. Since then, Roaring 40s was broken up and the Stony Gap WF project was taken over by TRUenergy and later by Energy Australia.

In early 2012 TRUenergy released a locally conducted opinion survey concerning its existing and proposed Mid-North wind farms. More detail under links.

This wind farm and the nearby Waterloo Wind Farm seem to have raised a more organised than usual opposition.

Summary data from Stony Gap Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW each	Total MW	Construction	Lat	Long
Approved	35	3	105	Late 2017?	33.81°	138.93°

Resolution of court case On 2014/11/09 it was announced that the Environment, Resources and Development Court had approved Stony Gap Wind Farm. No grounds on noise, health, visual amenity or anything else were found to justify stopping the project. The judgement is interesting in what it says about the credibility of witnesses such as Sarah Laurie. Development Assessment Panel refuses permission On 2012/08/01 a DAP refused permission for the project on the grounds of health related to noise – in spite there being no scientifically valid evidence for damage to health from wind turbines, there being no evidence that wind turbines produce unreasonable levels of noise and the fact that wind power saves lives and reduces the numbers of serious illnesses caused by air pollution from coal fired power stations. The decision was popular with the audience at the hearing, but went against utilitarian (the greatest good for the greatest number) and probably any other ethical principles.

The towers are to be 85 metres tall.

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Community Liaison Group

TRUenergy have established a Community Liaison Group concerning its Mid-North wind farms. The group was continued by Energy Australia, meets about five times a year and brings together many interested local people with Energy Australia staff and experts in various fields relevant to wind power. (I, David Clarke, the author of these pages, am a member of the group.)

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This section added 2017/04/13 Edited 2019/05/25

Twin Creek Wind Farm

News, May 2019 Sophie Vorrath reported in Renew Economy that the State Commission Assessment Panel has resolved to grant development plan consent.

This wind farm is proposed to be north-east of Kapunda; at its closest point about 11km ENE of the town. RES (Renewable Energy Systems) has a Net site about the project. In addition to the wind farm the project is to include a battery for energy storage.

There has been considerable public opposition to the project; RES have reduced the proposed number of turbines by 40 in response.

Construction was expected to create 160 jobs, with eight full-time jobs once the wind farm was operating.

RES have promised a $50,000 per year community development fund for the expected 25-year life of the project.

Twin Creek Wind Farm summary data

Status	No. of turbines	MW	Total MW	Battery	Construction date	Lat	Long
Proposed	51	About 3.6	183	50MW/215MWh	Undecided	Approx. S 34.24°	E 138.99°

The total height to the blade tip of each turbine will be 180m.

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Updated 2010/05/19

Vincent North Wind Farm

also known as Sheoak Flat Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW	Total MW	Construction date	Lat	Long
Proposed	36	1.65	59.4	Undecided	Approx. S 34.71°	E 137.88°

This project was proposed by Pacific Hydro and was to be at Sheoak Flat between Port Julia and Port Vincent on Yorke Peninsula. The company obtained planning permission for the wind farm. On May 19th 2010 several newspapers reported that Pacific Hydro had decided to allow planning consent to lapse.

Quoting from the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 2008/04/15, "Currently the 132kv [power transmission] line serving Yorke Peninsula is at capacity and, until the capacity constraints are resolved and the electricity transmission infrastructure upgraded, this project and others like it are likely to remain on hold." Note that this same problem has stopped the development of Wattle Point Stage 2 wind farm. The SA Government talks big on sustainable energy, but does much less.

Further information on Vincent North Wind Farm...

The project
Output GWh/year	Greater than 140
Greenhouse gas saving	Estimated 145 000t/yr
Project cost	Aus$100 million

The information in this table came from Pacific Hydro.

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Edited 2019/08/13

Waterloo Wind Farm

Temporary construction buildings at Waterloo Wind Farm; beginning of electrical control yard on left. 2010/02/12

The ridge before the turbines were erected Photo taken 2008/01/17

Fire at Waterloo, 2017/01/17 A grass fire that started about a half a kilometre west of the wind farm burned up to the top of the ridge where the wind turbines are. Water bombing aircraft were used to help get the fire under control. See another page on this site for more details.

Some (the first?) power from the Waterloo turbines was fed into the grid on 2010/08/23 at 1100 hours. By 2010/10/03 all the turbines were generating. Waterloo Wind Farm was accepted by the EPA as fully compliant on 2011/11/22.

The township of Waterloo is 39 km south-east of Clare, 20 km ENE of Auburn and 110 km NNE of Adelaide. A location map is in the notes on the Robertstown Wind Farm.

Waterloo was constructed by Tasmania-based Roaring 40s at a cost in excess of $300m. In April 2011 it was passed to TRUenergy, who later changed their name to Energy Australia. By 2017 the majority owner and manager was Palisades.

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The wind farm uses Vestas Wind Systems V90-3.0 MW turbines. (The V90 is an abbreviation: V for Vestas and the 90 indicates a 90m diameter for the swept circle of the turbine blades.)

On 2010/08/19 Dijana Jevremov of Roaring 40s informed me that the closest turbine to a residence at Waterloo Wind Farm is "at or near to 2 km away".

A battery?

At a meeting of the Waterloo Wind Farm Community Liaison Group on 2017/08/22 Steve Brown of Palisades mentioned that a 50MW/50MWh battery at the wind farm was being seriously considered.

Waterloo summary data

Stage	Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Capacity factor	Completion	Lat	Long
1	Operating	37	Vestas	V90	3	111	32%	October 2010	34.00°	138.92°
2	Operating	6	Vestas	V90	3	18	?	Late 2016	34.06°	138.91°
1+2	Operating	43	Vestas	V90	3	129	?	Late 2016

The capacity factor was calculated from AEMO data for October 2010 to December 2012 inclusive.

Photo taken 2010/06/24 The 690-tonne crane is in place to add the top sections to the part-tower. As can be seen, there are quite a few native trees on this ridge, it is a pity that a number had to be removed. Roaring 40s have an off-set arrangement with the Native Vegetation Council in which $800 000 will be paid toward revegetation and conservation programs. They are also using sterile rye grass and seven local native grass species to cover areas disturbed during construction.

Further data on Waterloo Wind Farm Stage 1

Turbines
Turbine type	Vestas V90 3 MW
Tower height	80m
Blade length	44m
Weight of each blade	6.7t
Tower weight	145t
Nacelle weight	70t
Hub and nose cone weight	22t
Foundations
Concrete used	360 cubic m each
Steel reo used	30t each
Total weight	910t each
Cables
Buried aluminium	28 km
Buried optical fibre	28 km

Waterloo turbines; colours altered digitally

Roaring 40s erected a wind monitoring tower in 2002 to investigate the wind potential of the site.

The turbines are along the top of a well defined sharp ridge running parallel to, and four kilometres west of, Tothill Range. The point specified by latitude and longitude in the table above is in the approximate centre of the wind farm and is about 3.5 km east of Waterloo. Waterloo is about 30 km SE of Clare.

An interesting point about this wind farm is that the turbines are 43% bigger than most of those previously constructed in northern South Australia; ie. 3 MW rather than 2.1 MW. (3 MW turbines have also been used at Lake Bonney Stage 3 Wind Farm.)

On the grape vine: The quartzite rock on the ridge is so hard that it has to be blasted before footings can be built. However, it is generally too fractured for rock anchors to be used, so the footings are of the heavy gravity type.

The SA EPA found the Waterloo Wind Farm to be compliant with state wind farm permissible noise levels in late 2011.

Energy Australia are working toward two other wind farms in the area, Stony Gap and Robertstown.

In early 2012 Energy Australia released a locally conducted opinion survey concerning its existing and proposed Mid-North wind farms. More detail under links.

Community Liaison Group

TRUenergy have established a Community Liaison Group concerning its three Mid-North wind farms. The group meets every two or three months and brings together a number of interested local people with Energy Australia staff and experts in various fields relevant to wind power. (I, David Clarke, the author of these pages, am a member of the group.)

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Waterloo

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Waterloo Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Eagles at Waterloo Wind Farm

Two pairs of wedge-tailed eagles have been nesting on the ridge on which the Waterloo Wind Farm turbines have been built on for getting on toward nine years (this note was added in August 2019).

Community funding

May 2016 A press release concerning the Waterloo Wind Farm Community Grants Program stated that "the amount of funding this year will be $30,000 (up from $20,000 last year".

I will quote an email kindly sent by Sarah Stent, Corporate Affairs Manager, Energy Australia:

"In the past year, allocation by Waterloo wind farm to community has been driven by strategic partnerships, rather than via a 'Community Fund'. This included major contributions of;

• $27,000 for the Community Information Shelter at Waterloo;
• $7,500 for the CFS to purchase a generator;
• $17,500 for Clare races event;
• $12,500 to the CSIRO study of social licence.

In addition, there was support of smaller events such as the Saddleworth Christmas party (approx 1-2k) and the ($4k) Swimming Australia learn to Swim classes at the Clare pool.

This year, funding will be predominantly allocated via the Community Fund – $20,000 over the year. Further to this we plan to allocate $5,000 funding to the set up and development of community bus tours of Waterloo and the training of a tour guide. There is then also the Retail Offer which is now available to all residents and businesses in the region, offering a 14% discount. We support the lodgement of a grant for the SEB grant. We will also look to host an open day later in the year.

Funding for the ongoing CLG will continue as will community advertising to ensure wider community is aware of our actions and priorities. If the CSIRO study is reinvigorated, we may also extend further funding to this."

So, the total for the year listed above is $64 500. This is $1740 per turbine, well above the average for SE Australia (around $1000). Excluding the $12 500 for the CSIRO funding, which did not go to the local community, the total was $52 000, or $1405 per turbine for the year; still well above average.

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Waterloo stage 2

A second stage added six more turbines (18 MW additional installed capacity) at the southern end of the existing farm, from Steelton Road. This was given approval by the Clare and Gilbert Valley Council in mid June 2013.

The second stage was completed in late 2016.

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Waterloo has seen a particularly high level of opposition

A wind farm opponent, Michael Cobb, wrote a litterally incredible piece about Waterloo Wind Farm in the Blayney Chronicle on 2012/11/01. He claimed he was unable to talk to wind farm hosts because of 'gag clauses'; this is quite false – I have talked quite freely to a Waterloo turbine host a number of times. Ketan Joshi wrote a reply to Cobb's piece on 2012/11/25. A Michael Cobb has been found guilty of fraud and fined $14 000; more on this in Joshi's piece, above. I cannot be sure that it is this Michael Cobb, but it seems likely. It is relevant and fair to mention it here because it bares on Mr Cobb's honesty and credibility.

There seems to have been a more emotional reaction to the Waterloo Wind Farm than to most others, but perhaps it is simply that the opposition in this area is more organised and vocal than elsewhere. I believe that most of the activity is coming from a small group of six or so people. (There have only been five formal complaints sent to Energy Australia about the wind farm.)

It has been claimed that several houses have been abandoned at Waterloo due to the wind farm. However, evidence given at the hearing in Clare of the SA Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into Wind Farms, suggests that the houses may well have been vacated due to loss of employment at the local quarry.

The email below was sent by one of the opponents of the Waterloo Wind farm and seems to be encouraging people to lie about loss of sleep and illnesses caused by Waterloo Wind Farm. (I originally did not give the name of the sender, but when it was published in Adelaide Now I saw no reason to not include it here.)

Invitation to lie? "From: Mary Morris Sent: Wednesday, 5 September 2012 12:44 PM Subject: URGENT AND IMPORTANT - SEND NOISE /HEALTH COMPLAINTS TO CLARE AND GOYDER COUNCIL GOYDER COUNCIL SAYS IT HAS RECEIVED NO WRITTEN NOISE OR HEALTH COMPLAINTS REGARDING THE WATERLOO WIND FARM. They have the power to shut the wind farm down and get the noise nuisance investigated. LETS DO IT!!! Please send in a written complaint to both the Goyder Council and Clare Council All it has to be is a simple letter stating that the noise and vibration is causing a serious disturbance to sleep and rest, and/or that people are becoming sick – mention elderly and frail people AND children as well especially if this applies to you. If you have already sent in a letter, send again with a cover note that you wish your submission to be considered as a formal complaint about the effects of the Waterloo wind farm. Goyder council@goyder.sa.gov.au Clare and Gilbert Valley admin@cgvc.sa.gov.au Need help?? Let me know"

Mary Morris was inteviewed on radio in regard to a night spent beneath the Waterloo turbines by SA Greens MP Mark Parnell. She said on this program that she lives 17km from the turbines, but when her children get headaches and earaches she blames them on the turbines.

Two surveys

Zhenhua Wang's survey Professor Mike Brooks, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of Adelaide distanced the university from Mr Wang's work, saying that Mr Wang did the work in his own time and not for the University. I emailed Mr Wang (2012/03/01) asking for more information on his survey; I did not receive a reply. It is curious that Mr Wang's research seems to have been made available to anti-wind people: WindWatch, a Net based anti-wind power group; a member of the Mid North Wind Farm Liason Group who strongly opposes local wind farms; and Graham Lloyd of The Australian; but not to me, nor any other pro-wind power people who I know of.

A survey done by a masters candidate at Adelaide University, Zhenhua (Frank) Wang, sought responses from 75 people who lived within five kilometres from the wind farm. Mr Wang reported a 64% response rate, that 70% of "respondents claimed they had been negatively affected by the wind farm noise", that "35% of the respondents had been 'moderately affected' and 19% claimed they had been 'very affected'".

It is interesting to contrast the results of Mr Wang's survey with another survey carried out by Qdos Research and commissioned by Energy Australia (then called TRUenergy). The results of this community survey were released in March 2011. It involved 358 people living near the Waterloo Wind Farm and the proposed Stony Gap and Robertstown wind farms. The survey indicated that 66% of respondents were concerned about climate change, 77% supported wind farms, 69% supported nearby wind farms, and a majority saw wind farms as positives for: appearance, tourism, local business, short term jobs, local economy and landholder income. As Energy Australia own and operate the Yallourn coal-fired power station, which is far larger in power generation than are their wind farms, there seems no reason to believe that Energy Australia should be biased toward renewable energy. In fact I believe that Energy Australia lobbied the government to reduce the Renewable Energy Target.

EPA research

The South Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report titled "Infrasound levels near windfarms and in other environments" in January 2013. While this research was not conducted at Waterloo, it is very relevant to the allegations that have been made about this wind farm.

Major EPA study at Waterloo

On 2013/11/26 the EPA reported on a noise study they had done over a ten-week period from April to June in 2013. In this study the EPA arranged with a number of residents who lived near the wind farm to keep diaries in which they recorded their level of annoyance from the wind farm. A summary of the EPA's findings was available on the EPA site, but is no longer.

Because of the significant controversy around the Waterloo Wind Farm I will copy the summary of the findings of the EPA study here:

• Noise events that could be attributed to the wind farm were periodically audible at four locations, but at very low levels, which did not dominate the noise environment; however, no attributable events were found at the two remaining houses.
• Where detectable, noise levels from the wind farm were found to comply with criteria in the EPA Wind Farm Environmental Noise Guidelines.
• Wind farm operation was shown to contribute to the low frequency content of noise under some operating and environmental conditions, resulting in an increase in relevant low frequency noise descriptors
• In those houses where infrasound was monitored, a 'blade pass frequency' component was found at levels significantly below the accepted perception threshold of 85dB(G).
• Background noise resulting from local winds and other noise sources, was shown to contribute to increases in low frequency noise that were comparable with, or higher than contributions from the wind farm.
• A 'rumbling' effect was found using diary records to focus the analysis, which could only be heard with amplification of audio records; however, in many cases, the EPA was unable to determine that described events could be attributed to the turbines; and at times reported events coincided with shutdowns of the plant.
• Some degree of modulation was detected, which may have been perceivable at times by residents.
• The rumbling and other low frequency characters found in this study would not generally be audible to a typical listener, but it is possible that sensitive people living within this very quiet area may hear them. This could cause annoyance to some people if exposed to the noise for prolonged time periods.

Peter Dolan of the EPA was later reported on the ABC North and West radio program saying that this study indicated that noise from the wind farm was not significantly impacting on the local people. He said that the entries in the diaries did not correlate with the levels of sound from the wind farm.

Some anti wind-power reporting

Graham Lloyd, 'Environment Editor' of The Australian wrote a particularly ill-informed article on Waterloo Wind Farm that was published on 2012/04/21.

Threats, abuse

I have received abusive emails from one Waterloo resident who accused me of "lies and misleading the puplic (sic)" and from another who called me a "death camp Natzi" (sic). (As stated elsewhere on these pages, I am always pleased to have people point out any errors that I have made, so long as they give convincing evidence for their claims.

A couple of night's sleep at Waterloo   Home Top SA wind farms Wind home Index To get some personal experience I went to the Waterloo wind farm on the evenings of 2012/02/09 and 2012/02/14 and set up my swag beneath one of the turbines (a different section of the wind farm on each occasion). The number of kangaroos on the ridge impressed me; I must have seen at least eight, including a small joey. I also saw a pair of wedge-tailed eagles circling near the turbines. All were apparently in good health.   Politicians sleeping near turbines Greens MP Mark Parnell slept beneath the Waterloo turbines on the night of 2013/05/28, and three politicians slept in an abandoned house about two kilometres from the turbines on the night of 2013/07/17. On both nights the wind varied from a moderate to a stiff breeze, so the turbines were operating all night. While I could plainly hear the turbines whenever I woke at night, I had no problem at all in getting a good night's sleep. Right at the foot of the turbine the sound of the turbine gear-box dominated the sound of the blades as they passed through the air. I noticed that when I moved away 100m or more all I could hear was the blades. On both visits I stopped in Waterloo township to listen for the turbines in the evening before going to the wind farm and in the morning after leaving the wind farm. With the possible exception of the first morning I could not hear them. When there was a breeze in the nearby trees the sound from this would have drowned-out any sound from the turbines. In both mornings there was very little breeze in Waterloo while there was a good breeze on the ridge. On the first morning I thought I might just be able to hear the turbines, but could not be sure; birds were making far more noise than the turbines. I have written more about my personal experiences sleeping at or near wind farms elsewhere.

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Edited 2013/06/16

Wattle Point Wind Farm

Wattle Point Wind Farm location Wattle Point Wind Farm can be seen in the lower section of this Google-Earth image. Each dot at the end of a little road is a turbine. The information station is on the road running due south into the farm.

A 55-turbine wind farm at Wattle Point near Edithburgh on Yorke Peninsula. Edithburgh is 80 km WSW of Adelaide as the crow flies, but about 230 km by road around the northern end of St. Vincent Gulf. For directions to Wattle Point go to ExplorOz.

The wind farm started operating in the first half of 2005.

Alinta sold this wind farm to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ANZ, Energy Infrastructure Trust, in April 2007 for Aus$225m. It is run by AGL.

The Google-Earth image at the right shows the locations of individual turbines and a number of the access roads.

Wattle Point is unusual in being (as of late 2009 at least) the only large Australian wind farm laid out in a grid-pattern on level ground. It would be interesting to know how much wind-shadowing there is due to this lay-out.

In the Australian Electricity Generation Report of 2008, available from Australian Policy Online, this wind farm is listed as the eighth largest renewable energy power station in mainland eastern Australia, and the third largest wind farm, by generation for 2008, generating 248 MWh.

Sunset at Wattle Point Wind Farm

Summary data, Wattle Point Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	Manufacturer	Model	MW each	Total MW	Completed	Capacity factor	Lat	Long
Operating	55	Vestas	V82	1.65	91	May 2005	33%	S 35.10°	E 137.72°

The capacity factor was taken from AEMO data, via the ALG Net pages, and is from data from June 2008 to December 2012 inclusive.

Old and new windmills at Wattle Point

Additional data on Wattle Point Wind Farm

Type of turbine	Vestas V82
Total area of wind farm	11.5 square kilometres
Tower height	67m
Blade length	40m
Height to blade tip	110m
Expected life	25 years
Expected annual generation	312 GWh
312 GWh/annum was roughly 2% of South Australia's electricity at the time Wattle Point was built. The above data were from Research Institute for Sustainable Energy, (RISE).

Generation record Up to end 2012

Generation record for Wattle Point

The graph on the right shows the power generation record for Wattle Point Wind Farm as recorded by AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and downloaded via the ALG (Australian Landscape Guardians) Net site. The units are average megawatts generated month by month.

Air navigation lights

I noticed on a visit in late September 2010 that there were no lights on any of the turbines.

Community funding

It appears that there is no community fund associated with Wattle Point Wind Farm.

Noise

In September 2010 I took sound level readings among the turbines in a light breeze. The highest reading was 47dB(A) and I noted at the time that a car travelling at an estimated 60 km/hr 400m away was making more noise.

More photos are at my Wattle Point photos page; also see my notes on Visiting Wattle Point Wind Farm.

I've flown over southern Yorke Peninsula quite a few times when travelling between Adelaide and Perth. This is the best view I've had of Wattle Point Wind Farm from the air.

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Wattle Point Stage 2 Wind Farm

Alternatively known as Troubridge Point Wind Farm

This was proposed to be a 25 MW wind farm near the present Wattle Point farm. At least to October 2008 it has not been built. The hold up seems to be the lack of capacity in the transmission lines.

Following an inquiry I sent to the District Council of Yorke Peninsula I received the following by email...

Please be advised that Council have approved of a second wind farm near Wattle Point a couple of years ago, however, the development has not proceeded due to the fact that there is insufficient capacity in the transmission lines to accommodate additional power loadings.

Until such time that there is an extensive up grade to the existing transmission lines, which would cost the state government millions of dollars, the development will not occur.

I trust that this information answers you enquiry.

Regards,
ROGER S BROOKS
ACTING DIRECTOR DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY SERVICES
District Council of Yorke Peninsula
roger.brooks@yorke.sa.gov.au
www.yorke.sa.gov.au

More recently (October 2008) I have had confirmation from another source (I will not give the name) that the reason this farm was not built was a lack of support by the State Government.

So it seems yet again that a wind farm development that could happen is not going to happen because of lack of the needed government support, in this case, state government support.

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Updated 2012/06/08

Woakwine Range Wind Farm

This project is proposed by Infigen Energy who own the nearby Lake Bonney Wind Farm.

Infigen Investor Relations sent me links to two MP3 files, on 2010/12/15, of interviews with Frank Boland, Infigen Project Manager, who was speaking about the Woakwine Wind Farm. Together with the wind farm size data and probable construction date given in the summary table below, he said that the cost of the project was expected to be greater than $800m. He said that the northern section would comprise 49 turbines and go from Cape Jaffa to Mount Benson, the largest, southern, section would go from Mount Hope to Lake Bonney (98 turbines), and there would be another six turbines near Robe. He also said that the closest turbines to houses of people without a financial connection to the wind farm would be 600 to 700m away.

Infigen seem to have little information about the project on their Net pages as of 2011/12/10.

Summary data, Woakwine Range Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW	Total MW	Construction date
Approved	153	3?	450 to 540	Unknown

The last council to give approval was Wattle Range, who approved the project on 2012/06/07

Approximate locations of the sections of Woakwine Range Wind Farm

Section	Latitude	Longitude
Northern	S 37.01°	E 139.76°
Robe	S 37.18°	E 139.75°
Southern	S 37.56°	E 140.23°

Infigen had a pdf file on its 'Australian development pipeline' (no longer available) that mentioned the project.

The power transmission network in the region is already strugling to handle the load from the existing wind farms; it will need substantial development before this project can be brought online.

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World's End Wind Farm

Status	No. of turbines	MW	Total MW	Construction date	Lat.	Long.
Proposed	90?	2?	180	Undecided	S 33.83°	E 139.05°

The Burra Broadcaster published a front page article on 18^th August, 2004 stating that a company named Wind Developments Australia Pty. Ltd. were planning to build an 80 to 90 turbine wind farm at World's End (about 15 km South of Burra); each turbine being 2 MW. The newspaper also stated that construction was expected to take about eight months and the Company hoped to start construction by the end of 2004.

This seems to me one of the least likely of the Mid-North SA wind farms to be built. There is no evidence that I know of for any action at all on the project, and I have been told by someone in a position to know that the turbine sites are inappropriate for efficient operation.

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Allco Financial Services listed this as one of their projects. Allco, in severe financial difficulties, called in administrators in November 2008.

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Updated 2015/07/30

Other proposed wind farms

In addition to those detailed above many others wind farms are proposed (table below). For every wind farm built, five have been proposed. The projects on this list are either highly speculative or in their very early days. Information concerning these would be appreciated, my email address is at the top of this page.

If and when any of these proposed wind farms look likely to be built I will write them up in more detail.

Until some significant money is spent on investigation a proposed wind farm may be little more than wishful thinking and is not worth covering in more detail than that below.

As of November 2010 I have visited, or attempted to visit, 13 of the 14 operating South Australian wind farms. The best readily available map that shows all the minor roads is probably RAA's Clare Valley regional road map. Below are some notes on local accommodation, accessibility, photographing possibilities, etc. They are listed in alphabetical order.

Lake Bonney has been listed with Canunda because these two, independently owned and operated, wind farms are contiguous and it is not easy to see where one finishes and the other starts. Similarly the AGL wind farms in the Hallett area have been grouped together.

Wind farms in this section (Locality)
Canunda (Millicent) Cathedral Rocks (Port Lincoln) Clements Gap (Crystal Brook) Hallett wind farms (Burra/Jamestown) Lake Bonney (Millicent)	Mount Millar (Cleve/Cowell) Snowtown Starfish Hill (Cape Jervis) Waterloo (Clare) Wattle Point (Edithburgh)

All wind farm turbines in SA are on private land. While you can often get quite close to some turbines via public roads, there will be others that cannot be approached except by crossing private land.

In my experience most farmers are very reasonable and will not object if you walk onto a property a short distance from a boundary fence, leave gates as you find them, are considerate of livestock, and do not go near sheds or homesteads without asking permission. I suggest not driving onto private land without permission. Most land-owners would prefer you to ask permission before entering on their land at all, but it is very often difficult to know who owns what land and where he/she lives. If you meet anyone, politely explain what you are doing.

I would appreciate information that would allow me to improve this section, for example, further information on local accommodation options.

Power interconnectors

Several interconnectors (high capacity high voltage long distance power lines) have been built between SA and the eastern states over the last few years. Their purpose was mainly to import power into SA, but if the proposed generation capacity is developed then these interconnectors could be used for exportation of green power from SA to the eastern states. To July 2009 no long-distance power transmission line has been built in Australia specifically for renewable energy.

Connector	Owner/Manager	Capacity	Connection Points
Heywood	ElectraNet SA	500 MW import 300 MW export	Lower SE SA to Portland Vic.
Murray-Link	transEnergie	200 MW	Redcliff Vic. to Monash SA
Proposed SA-NSW Interconnector (SNI) 1	NEMCO	?	?
Proposed SA-NSW Interconnector (SNI) 2	Transgrid	?	SA/NSW border to Robertstown via Monash

Connectors (extracted from a Net page – no longer available – by Beyond Logic and elsewhere) are listed in the table above.

Peter Hannam wrote an article in The Age on 2013/09/05 reporting that the Australian Energy Regulator had approved an upgrade on the Heywood Interconnector that will increase capacity by 40% (increasing its capacity by around 190MW). The upgrade will allow for the export of power from increased wind farm capacity in South Australia.

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Generation and consumption on 2014/06/27

Wind farm generation and South Australian power consumption Acknowledgements: data from AEMO, graph produced and kindly supplied by Mike Hudson

During a large part of the week beginning 2014/06/22 there were widespread, strong and persistant winds in SE Australia. Wind farm capacity factors reached around 80% and above for a substantial part of the period.

Total installed wind power in SA, including the new Snowtown Stage 2 was 1475MW. From Mike Hudson's graph on the right it can be seen that the approximate average generation for the day was 1200MW. This represents a capacity factor of 81%.

It can be seen from the graph that between 1am and 7am SA's wind turbines were generating more power than was being consumed in the state. Indeed, most of SA's demand for the whole day was coming from the wind farms.

The dip in the power generation line from around 2pm to 3pm was due to Snowtown 2 North dropping out for a time.

Around one tonne of greenhouse CO₂ is abated for every MWh generated by Australia's wind farms, so on this day about 20 tonnes of CO₂ were being abated every minute; about 29 000 tonnes for the whole day.

It is interesting that the SA part of the NEM grid, and the power interconnectors, seemed to handle the load without problems. (There were some power outages because of fallen trees across power lines, etc.)

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The big blow of 2005/01/03

At the date above there was a very destructive wind in the Port Pirie/Crystal Brook/Red Hill area. From the large number of trees blown down I estimated that it was similar in strength to two previous very damaging winds; one about 1980 and the other around 1999. I wondered if there would be any likelihood of such a wind damaging wind turbines.

Ken Jack of Stanwell (the proposers of Barn Hill Wind Farm, Red Hill – Wandearah area) kindly informed me of the wind velocities that he recorded. As some wind farm operators treat their wind velocity records as confidential, it would be unfair for me to publish the exact figure here. However, I can say that the strongest gust was well below the sort of wind that might be expected to bring down a wind turbine.

Links to subjects on this page...

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Wind home

On this page...
32% in 2015/16
41% wind energy for third quarter 2013
Abatement
Allendale Wind Farm
Annular generator
Barn Hill Wind Farm
Big Battery, Hornsdale (Tesla)
Big blow of 3rd Jan 05
Bluff Range Wind Farm
Brown Hill Range Wind Farm
Canunda Wind Farm
Capacities of conventional power stations
Carmodys Hill Wind Farm
Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm
Ceres Project
Clements Gap Wind Farm
Collaby Hill Wind Farm
Colour coding for wind farm status-Table
Contents
Coober Pedy Wind Farm
Crystal Brook Energy Park
Crystal Brook Wind Farm
Eagles at Waterloo Wind Farm
Electricity imports decreasing due to wind power-Graph
Elliston Stage 1 Wind Farm
Elliston Stage 2 Wind Farm
Emissions from generation-Graph
Emissions from power generation
EPA research
EPA study at Waterloo
Eyre Peninsula wind project
Exmoor Wind Farm
Future of wind power
Generation and consumption on 2014/06/27
Generation costs at Hallett
Generation duration for SA wind-Graph
Goyder Renewables Zone
Green Point Wind Farm
Greenhouse gas emissions-Graph
Growth of the SA wind industry
Gulnare Wind Farm
Hallett-map
Hallett #1
Hallett #2
Hallett #3
Hallett #4
Hallett #5
Hallett Hill Wind Farm
Hallett wind farms
Hornsdale Wind Farm
  (Tesla) Big Battery
Installed wind power, by wind farm-Table
Installed wind power in SA
Introduction
Invitation to lie
Kemmis Hill Wind Farm
Keyneton Wind Farm
Kongorong Wind Farm
Kulpara Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 1 Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 2 Wind Farm
Lake Bonney Stage 3 Wind Farm
Lake Bonney wind farms
Lake George Wind Farm
Lake Hamilton-Sheringa Wind Farm
Lincoln Gap Wind Farm
Mid-North SA
More equible financial benefit?
Mount Benson Wind Farm
Mount Bryan Wind Farm
Mount Hill Wind Farm
Mount Millar Wind Farm
Myponga-Sellicks Hill Wind Farm
North Brown Hill Wind Farm
Operating SA wind farms-Graph
Organised opposition
Other proposed wind farms
Palmer Wind Farm
Percentage of wind power in SA
Port Augusta Wind Farm
Port Patterson Wind Farm
Power interconnectors
Robe Wind Farm
Robertstown Wind Farm
Sheoak Flat Wind Farm
Sheringa Beach Wind Farm
Skillogalee Wind Farm
Sleep at Waterloo
Snowtown Wind Farm
Snowtown Wind Farm Stage 2
South Australia shows what is possible
South Australian wind farms
South Australia wind farm generation-Graph
Starfish Hill Wind Farm
Stony Gap Wind Farm
Thompson Beach Wind Farm
Top
Troubridge Point Wind Farm
Turbine shut-down Hallett-2
Twin Creek Wind Farm
Uley Wind Farm
Vincent North Wind Farm
Visiting Canunda Wind Farm
Visiting Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm
Visiting Clements Gap Wind Farm
Visiting Hallett wind farms
Visiting Lake Bonney Wind Farm
Visiting Mount Millar Wind Farm
Visiting SA wind-farms
Visiting Snowtown Wind Farm
Visiting Starfish Hill Wind Farm
Visiting Waterloo Wind Farm
Visiting Wattle Point Wind Farm
Waitpinga Wind Farm
Waterloo Wind Farm
Waterloo Stage 2 Wind Farm
Waterloo WF: organised opposition
Wattle Point Stage 2 Wind Farm
Wattle Point Wind Farm
Weymouth Hill Wind Farm
Where SA and Mid-North SA stand on the world scene
Willogoleche Wind Farm
Wind energy contribution to SA power
Wind energy vs greenhouse intensity-Graph
Wind farm generation data
Wind farms by location
Wind farms by region
Wind generation in SA by region-Graph
Wind output at high demand periods-Graph
Wind Penetration in SA
Wind power in SA
Woakwine Range Wind Farm
Worlds End Wind Farm