Snowtown II Wind Farm Opened

Snowtown Wind Farm

Officially opened on the weekend, Snowtown Wind Farm’s second stage will generate enough electricity to power an average of 170,000 South Australian homes.

The total output of both stages is expected to be approximately 1,350 GWh annually; which is enough to power 230,000 homes while avoiding 950,000 tonnes a year of carbon emissions.

The second stage saw 90 wind turbines added – 23 x Siemens SWT-3.0-101 turbines and 67 x Siemens SWT-3.0-108 turbines.

Snowtown Wind Farm is owned by Trustpower and is situated in the Barunga and Hummocks Ranges, 170 kilometres north of Adelaide. With the second stage completed, it is now the largest wind farm in the state and the second largest in the nation.

Electricity generated is transmitted from the wind farm substation to a new substation 7km west of Blyth via 28km of new 275kV overhead transmission line. From Blyth, the electricity is exported into the ElectraNet Para to Bungama 275kV transmission line.

The Clean Energy Council has congratulated the parties involved, including the South Australian Government for its support of renewables.

“The South Australian Government has recognised the many benefits that renewable energy can bring to the local economy, and its support has been extremely important for the continued development of wind power in the state,” said Clean Energy Council Acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton.

“Wind power now provides more than a quarter of South Australia’s electricity and, in combination with rooftop solar, it provided more than the state’s total energy needs between 9.30am and 6pm on one day in September this year. Along with the billions of dollars in investment and economic activity wind power has generated in the state, renewable energy has been a remarkable success story for South Australia.”

However, Mr. Thornton warned investment in new large scale renewable energy projects is threatened.

“This investment freeze is likely to continue while the Federal Government’s review of the policy is creating so much uncertainty across the sector. A week ago it led to the announcement that 100 workers at Keppel Prince Engineering will lose their jobs, and this is just a taste of what’s to come unless we can resolve this quickly.”

Trustpower’s chief executive Vince Hawksworth also warned jobs and Australia’s reputation were at stake.

“Projects that haven’t pre-sold output, they really face a very difficult time and it shouldn’t be like that, this is what we call sovereign risk. Australia’s got a reputation for standing behind the things it says to investors and that’s what we think it should do.”

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