The project is managed and operated by the recently created joint venture Roaring 40s, a partnership between Hydro Tasmania and China Light & Power.
Roaring 40s project manager Mike Gilmore told Environmental Management News that civil works on the project would begin in January 2006, with delivery of the wind turbines expected mid-year.
With an installed capacity of around 64.75MW, the Woolnorth Wind Farm is already Australia’s largest operating windfarm, with 37 Vestas V66-1.65MW turbines delivered during the first two phases.
The commissioning of the 25 new turbines will more than double its capacity to 138MW.
Vestas said the full scope of the order consisted of delivery, installation and commissioning, a remote control system and a 5-year service and maintenance agreement.
Vestas said Roaring 40s was already one of their largest customers in the Asia-Pacific, but given the Howard Government’s unwillingness to extend the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets, the long-term market potential for wind power in Australia is considered “very unstable”.
Gilmore agreed with Tasmanian energy minister Bryan Green’s comments at the World Wind Energy Conference in Melbourne earlier this week, saying the federal government’s position on MERTs would impede the continuing development of domestic renewable energy.
“Basically, any project that’s not underway by 2008 will find it very difficult to stack up financially, because of the MRET situation,” Gilmore told EMN.
Gilmore said that Tasmania was definitely leading the way in Australia’s renewable wind energy, with another two wind farms likely to start work before 2008, at Musselroe and Heemskirk.
