Able to power 52,000 homes, the Wattle Point Wind Farm was constructed over 12 months by Southern Hydro.

Research showed the Yorke Peninsula location had one of the highest average wind speeds on mainland Australia, the company said.

Each turbine is on a tower 68.5 metres high and has a rotor diameter of 82 metres, according to Southern Hydro.

A turbine starts to transmit electricity when the wind speed reaches 11 km/h, and the maximum wind speed that the turbine can convert to electricity is 72 km/h. When generating, the blades spin at 14.4 rpm with the blade tip travelling at just over 220 km/h.

More than 37km of underground cabling and 25km of overhead transmission line have been installed to link the wind farm to the national electricity grid.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann said the state would soon have six wind farms operating, giving it more than 50% of the present installed capacity in Australia.

"The opening of this wind farm today is yet another step forward in this state's commitment to have a least 15% of our power generated by sustainable energy by the year 2014," Rann said.

"In my opinion we have no choice but to take serious action to reduce greenhouse gases which are without doubt the largest contributor to climate change."

But not everyone was happy about the new wind farm.

Aboriginals from Yorke Peninsula turned their backs on South Australian premier Mike Rann at the opening, protesting claimed disturbance of ancestors’ remains during turbine installation, according to The Australian newspaper.

“We’re disgusted [with the state government’s] attitude," Narungga Heritage Committee project monitor Quenten Agius told the newspaper.

"They didn’t take any notice of the elders. They just went ahead and developed it.”

Archeologist Maciej Henneberg investigated the contended site in January and found the remains were likely to come from another part of the peninsula.