Acciona wants to install 3GW wind farm in Western Australia

A renewable energy company has released plans to build the largest onshore wind farm outside China in Western Australia’s booming energy corridor.

Spain’s Acciona Energy wants to install 400 6.2-megawatt wind turbines as part of its 3-gigawatt Bellwether project in the state’s Great Southern region.
The proposed wind farm would dwarf the next-largest projects in the country, including the 1,330-megawatt Golden Plains wind farm in Victoria and Acciona’s 1,000-megawatt MacIntyre project in Queensland.

It would also significantly outstrip the proposed 100-turbine Ambrosia project near Collie, currently the largest wind project proposed for Western Australia.

The wind turbines would be built on 100,000 hectares of farmland in the shires of West Arthur, Williams, Wagin and Narrogin, southwest of Perth.

Jeff Nitsch, managing director of Acciona WA, said the wind farm, which has a tentative completion date of 2030, would be one of the largest in the world once operational.

“The [MacIntyre] project in full scale is about 1,000 megawatts, the proposed Bellwether wind farm project could be two or three times that scale,” he said. “At that size, it could be the largest onshore wind farm outside of China.”
He said the company was in discussions with landowners and local governments about the proposed development, but anticipated Acciona could be exporting power to the grid within six years.

Tristan Edis, director of Green Energy Markets, said the completed project would be the most productive in Australia and one of the largest developments of its kind.

“Every major economy has a significant wind energy component in their electricity system, and that is expanding, whether it’s the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, etc.,” he said. If the developer’s estimates prove correct, the project could produce similar levels of power to the Collie power station, which is due to be decommissioned by the end of the decade.

But Edis said infrastructure is needed to connect the development to the South Western Interconnected System, along with customers to buy the gigawatts of electricity.

“They will need a long-term power buyer to make this project what they call bankable,” he said.

“In Western Australia, you typically need the involvement of Synergy, the state-owned retailer, or you need Alinta, which is one of the major private sector retailers, or you need one of the large industrial consumers of electricity.”
Most of the 400 wind turbines, with a wingspan of 160 metres and a height of about 220 metres, are expected to be built in West Arthur County.

The proposal has been greeted with caution by some residents, such as third-generation farmer Karen Harrington.

She said her family would support the development if the balance between energy and agriculture was maintained.

“It could be a real bonus, it could almost guarantee the sustainability of our small towns,” she said.

“There needs to be more guidance from the state government to protect agricultural land, but we welcome these renewable energy projects.”

Energy Minister Reece Whitby said he was working with the private sector to develop new renewable energy sources, while working to retire all state-owned coal-fired power stations by 2030.