Work will soon start on the Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown in South Australia – and with it will come up to 250 jobs.
In the planning stage for more than three years, the application for Neoen Australia’s $250 million project was recently signed off by state Planning Minister John Rau.
Climate Change Minister Ian Hunter said projects such as the Hornsdale Wind Farm help generate energy from clean, renewable sources while bringing much-needed investment and employment to the State.
“At a time when we are concentrating on economic development in the Mid North of our State, the Hornsdale Wind Farm presents a great opportunity for local employment,” stated the Minister; who also pointed to the massive growth of large scale renewables overseas.
“China, India and the United States are looking more and more to renewables to help them produce cleaner energy and support the jobs of tomorrow – this is in stark contrast to the Federal Government’s attacks on the Renewable Energy Target and renewable sector, which placed more than $4.6 billion of potential investment in South Australian wind farms at risk.”
Minister Hunter said South Australia has established itself as the nation’s leader in wind energy investment, having attracted 41 per cent of the nation’s installed capacity.
“Our State has an international reputation -if it were a nation state, South Australia would be second only to Denmark in regard to wind energy.”
Hornsdale Wind Farm will generate approximately 1,050,000 megawatt-hours electricity annually – enough to power approximately 180,000 homes with renewable energy. Electricity generated by the facility will be sold to the ACT.
Two other major projects in the pipeline in South Australia are the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park; which will consist of approximately 150MW of wind turbine capacity and 150MW solar PV capacity.
The gargantuan 600MW Ceres wind farm on the Yorke Peninsula will also give the state a significant economic boost. The proposed $1.5 billion project will create 500 direct jobs during construction and expected 50 full time jobs.
Ceres will generate enough power to supply 225,000 homes. Electricity from the facility will be transmitted via a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connection under the Gulf of St Vincent directly into Adelaide’s power grid.
