South Australia's Independent Industry Regulator (SAIIR), Mr Lew Owens, said today that the generation licence - granted to Babcock & Brown Windpower Pty Ltd (BBWP) - was for a wind farm of around 80MW capacity to be built near Lake Bonney in the State's South East.

BBWP has two shareholders, Sydney-based investment-banking firm, Babcock and Brown Pty Ltd, (B&B) and National Power Australasia Inc.

BBWP plans to build 46 wind towers and turbines along the Woakwine Range near Lake Bonney.

Mr Owens said the licence approval only applied to the first stage of the project. This involved the proposed construction of 46 wind turbine units, each with a capacity of 1.75MW for a total capacity of 80.5MW.

The wind farm will be connected to a 132kV transmission line at the Snuggery substation, nine kilometres from the farm.

South Australia's electricity transmission operator, ElectraNet, would construct, own, operate and maintain the nine kilometre line connection between Lake Bonney and Snuggery.

Mr Owens said he believed BBWP had significant technical and human resources available - particularly via its contractor, Vestas - to enable it to construct and operate the Lake Bonney project.

"Vestas will initially utilise experienced Danish operations and maintenance personnel - who will be located in the Millicent area - to operate the wind farm," Mr Owens said.

"We understand from the licence application that local personnel will then be trained and gradually take on a greater share of the work," he said.

The Regulator has already granted a generation licence to the Starfish Hill Wind Farm Project near Cape Jervis, south of Adelaide. This proposal is about half the size of the Lake Bonney project.

Worldwide experience in wind energy

Of the BBWP partners, National Power Australasia is involved in the development of energy projects in the United States and Australia.

B&B - which is 20% owned by Germany's third largest bank, Bayerische Hypo and Vereins - has been involved in several development and capital raisings for large international wind projects in the United Kingdom, United States, Spain and Italy.

The Company has a 35% interest in the Redbank power station and a 50% interest in the 300MW gas fired Oakey power station in Queensland.

Mr Owens said that in its licence application, BBWP stated it had entered into a contract for the construction, operation and maintenance of the Lake Bonney wind farm, and for the supply of the wind turbines, with Vestas - Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd.

Vestas is a fully-owned subsidiary of Vestas Wind Systems A/S, a company listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and which has considerable experience in the construction and operation of wind turbines.

In 2000, Vestas held approximately 32% of the worldwide market in wind farms.

The BBWP application says Vestas has subcontracted Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd to undertake associated civil works for the construction of the Lake Bonney project.