The Capital Wind Farm near
Bungendore
Bungendore is a town in the Queanbeyan Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. It is on the Kings Highway near Lake George, the Molonglo River Valley and the Australian Capital Territory border. It has ...
is the largest
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...
in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. It is part of the Capital Renewable Energy Precinct, along with nearby
Woodlawn Wind Farm
The Woodlawn Wind Farm is a wind farm located near Bungendore, New South Wales. It is part of the Capital Renewable Energy Precinct, along with nearby Capital Wind Farm and the Woodlawn Bioreactor.
Woodlawn Wind Farm was owner and operator ...
and the Capital East Solar Demonstration Plant.
Capital Wind Farm was built by international contractors
Suzlon Energy
Suzlon Energy Limited (NSE:SUZLONEQ, BSE:532667) is an Indian multinational wind turbine manufacturer based in Pune, India. It was formerly ranked by MAKE as the world's fifth largest wind turbine supplier.Source: MAKE Report: Global Wind Turb ...
for owner and operator
Infigen Energy
Infigen Energy (Infigen), operating under this name since 29 April 2009, is a developer, owner and operator of renewable energy generation assets in Australia. Infigen's wind farm portfolio has an installed capacity of 557 MW. Most of Infigen's a ...
. Construction began in early 2008, and the wind farm became fully operational in October 2009. It is a 140.7
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...
wind farm with 67
turbines
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful Work (physics), work. The work produced by a turbine can be used ...
.
In 2009, the project was expected to have a capacity factor of 35.8%,
and thus generate on average 441 GWh of energy per year. However, from 2011 to 2020 it ran at an average of 27.88% capacity factor, with a corresponding annual generation of 343.66 GWh.
Location
The Capital Wind Farm is around north east of
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, just southeast of
Lake George and north of
Bungendore
Bungendore is a town in the Queanbeyan Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council. It is on the Kings Highway near Lake George, the Molonglo River Valley and the Australian Capital Territory border. It has ...
. It is located in open farming country, with minimal obstructions in the landscape and smooth topography.
Construction
The Capital Wind Farm was built for Infigen Energy by Suzlon Energy.
It was constructed as part of the
Kurnell Desalination Plant
The Sydney Desalination Plant also known as the Kurnell Desalination Plant is a potable drinking water desalination plant that forms part of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney. The plant is located in the Kurnell industrial ...
project to offset the power usage of the desalination plant.
The wind farm was completed in October 2009 at a cost estimated between A$220 million and A$370 million.
It was opened by the Prime Minister at the time,
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
, in November 2009.
People and employment
Since the wind farm was established, the population of nearby Bungendore has increased by 24 per cent, which the Clean Energy Council has claimed is because of its proximity to the wind farm.
During the construction of the Capital Wind Farm, 120 people were employed on the project. Over the construction period, about A$10 million went into the local economy, with spending up at the local stores, restaurants and motels.
Since construction has finished there are 15 ongoing jobs at the wind farm for service and maintenance.
Some residents who live nearby to the Capital Wind Farm have complained about the noise from the turbines.
Operations
The generation table use
eljmkt nemlogto obtain generation values for each month.
Note: Records date back to 2011.
See also
*
Wind power in Australia
Wind power is one of the main renewable energy sources in Australia contributing 10% of Australia's total electricity supply in 2020, and making up 37.5% of it's renewable energy supply. Wind resource testing conditions in Australia are opti ...
*
List of wind farms in New South Wales
References
{{Wind farms in Australia
Wind farms in New South Wales