The Golden Plains Wind Farm is a planned 1,330MW onshore renewable project in Victoria, Australia. The project will be constructed in two stages at an estimated cost of A$3bn ($2.05bn).
Westwind Energy is the original developer of the project.
In February 2022, clean energy producer TagEnergy joined as an equity investor for the wind project.
The A$2bn 756MW Stage One of the project reached financial close in November 2022. It will feature 122 turbines.
Project Gallery
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The Golden Plains wind farm is a 1,330MW project to be developed in Victoria, Australia. (Credit: Commonwealth Bank of Australia)
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The Golden Plains Wind Farm project will generate over 4,000GWh of renewable electricity per year (Credit: Mirosław i Joanna Bucholc from Pixabay)
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Vestas will supply 122 V162-6.2MW wind turbines from the EnVentus platform for the project. (Credit: JackieLou DL from Pixabay)
The construction works will start in early 2023 with operations expected to commence in the first quarter of 2025.
TagEnergy and Westwind Energy will also be associated with the development of 500MW+ Stage Two and a 300MW battery storage facility to boost grid stability.
Upon completion, the Golden Plains Wind Farm project will generate over 4,000GWh of renewable electricity per year to power more than 750,000 homes and offset more than 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Location and site details
The Golden Plains Wind Farm Project is proposed to be developed on an area of about 16,739 hectares located to the west, south and south east of the town of Rokewood in the Shire of Golden Plains. The location is approximately 60km northwest of Geelong.
The farm will be located on the land belonging to the Golden Plains Shire Council, Corangamite Catchment Management Authority and Victorian Volcanic Plain bioregion.
The project site is mainly used for agricultural purposes including broad acre cropping and livestock grazing.
Background
In 2006, WestWind started assessing the feasibility of wind resource development in the Golden Plains Shire around the Barunah Park and Rokewood area.
The company completed feasibility investigations and decided to apply for an 800-1000MW project in 2016.
In July 2017, the Federal and State Governments decided that the Golden Plains Wind Farm required an Environment Effect Statement (EES) and that the project was a controlled action due to impacts on matters of national environmental significance (MNES).
The EES and a Planning Permit Application (PPA) were submitted in August 2017. After public consultation and recommendations of the independent panel, the state Minister for Planning finalised and released the EES and issued the Planning Permit in December 2018.
In November 2021, the ministry approved an amendment application for the Project.
Infrastructure
The revised Golden Plains project layout includes 215 Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) and other ancillary infrastructure. Each of these WTGs will have a capacity of around 6MW.
The project may incorporate some adjustments to the layout to minimise impacts on flora and fauna and cultural heritage.
The revised plan also refines the location and configuration of supporting infrastructure such as the Terminal Station on Geggies Road and the overhead transmission line through the site.
The project infrastructure will also include an operations and maintenance building, permanent meteorological masts and other facilities.
Golden Plains Wind Farm Stage One
The Stage One of the project will feature 122 Vestas turbines with an installed generation capacity of 6.2MW each.
Each of these turbines has a swept area of more than 20,000m² and a rotor diameter of 162m. The turbines will have concrete gravity or rock anchor foundations with a depth of approximately 3.5m and a diameter of up to 20m to 25m.
Other infrastructure for the first stage will include a 500kV terminal station, two 500/220 kilovolt (kV) transformers to convert electricity from 220kV to 500kV and a 5km long 220 kV transmission line to connect the new Golden Plains Terminal Station.
Contractors Involved
In November 2022, TagEnergy entered into an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Vestas. As agreed, Vestas will supply 122 V162-6.2MW wind turbines from the EnVentus platform for the project.
Vestas will also provide a 30-year service and maintenance agreement (AOM5000) to optimise the energy production.
The wind turbines will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2023, with commissioning to commence in Q4 2024.
AusNet and its construction partner Consolidated Power Projects Australia were contracted to design, build, own and operate the transmission assets for the Golden Plains Wind Farm.
This includes the delivery of a new 500kV terminal station, two 500/220kV transformers, a 5km transmission line, and a new 220kV switching station.
Mondo, an entity of Ausnet Services, will conduct the preliminary electrical design works and will then run an open book tender for the electrical works.
In November 2022, TagEnergy also signed a grid connection agreement with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Westwind Energy was contracted to manage the wind farm for 30 years.
Financing
TagEnergy is the sole investor for the first stage of the wind farm.
It has secured non-recourse finance from a group of lenders that includes Denmark’s EKF, the Australian Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Germany’s KfW Ipex, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, Japan’s Mizuho Bank, and Bank of China. EKF provided a loan of A$300m for the project.
Elgar Middleton acted as the exclusive financial advisor to TagEnergy.