__NOTOC__ The Murra Warra Wind Farm will be one of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's 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 ...

s. Located on the plains of north-western

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, approximately north of the city of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, it will consist of 99 wind turbines with a maximum tip height of 220m. The project is expected to produce more than 1800

GWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

annually, enough electricity to power about 420,000 average Victorian homes each year, displacing up to 1.7 million tonnes of

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

each year. The project was developed by a joint venture between RES Group and

Macquarie Capital Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's t ...

and was sold in two stages to

Partners Group Partners Group Holding AG is a Swiss-based global private equity firm with US$127 billion in assets under management in private equity, private infrastructure, private real estate and private debt. The firm manages a broad range of funds, struct ...

in September 2018 and August 2020.

History

Site finding identified the location in 2007, and a meteorology mast erected in 2009. Development proceeded slowly until 2016, when planning reports were completed and submitted to

DELWP The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) was a government department in Victoria, Australia. Commencing operation in January 2015, the DELWP was created in the aftermath of the 2014 state election, with Premier Daniel And ...

in August 2016. Planning approval was given in November 2016 for 116 turbines. A

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

was signed with a consortium of companies led by

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

in December 2017, delivering Stage 1 of the project, which consists of 61 wind turbines. In March 2018, an EPC contract was signed with a consortium of

Senvion Senvion S.A. (called REpower Systems SE until 2014) was a German wind turbine manufacturer founded in 2001 in Germany, majority owned by a private equity firm. Senvion as REpower Systems, as it was initially called, was established in 2001 th ...

and

Downer Group Downer Group is an integrated services company active in Australia and New Zealand. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange as Downer EDI (DOW), Downer is an ASX 100 company. Downer Group employs approximat ...

to build a 61

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 ...

wind farm. In May 2019, it was reported that

market value had plunged by $430 million after its joint-venture partner on the Murra Warra wind farm project,

had gone into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

. Stage 1 is expected to be completed during 2020.

AusNet Services AusNet Services (previously SP AusNet) is an Australian energy delivery services business, owning and operating more than $11 billion of electricity and gas network assets. It is a privately held, and was formerly listed on the Australian Securi ...

were contracted to build the Terminal Station which was completed in early 2019. The Project connects into the Victorian 220 kV network between Horsham (HOTS) and Red Cliffs (RCTS). Stage 1 of the project was acquired by

in September 2018. RES Group continued as Construction and Asset Managers. In May 2020 it was announced that

Siemens Gamesa Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy S.A., formerly Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica S.A. () and Grupo Auxiliar Metalúrgico S.A., is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. In Spain, the company has two other main ...

Renewable Energy (SGRE) had secured a 30 year contract to provide Operations and Maintenance Services. Stage 2 of the project reached financial close in August 2020 when it was announced that Partners Group had also acquired the second stage with construction to commence immediately and scheduled to be completed by mid 2022. A

has been signed with

Snowy Hydro Snowy Hydro Limited is an electricity generation and retailing company in Australia that owns, manages, and maintains the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme which consists of nine hydro-electric power stations and sixteen large dams connecte ...

for the output of the project. Stage 2 will be constructed under an EPC contract awarded to

GE Renewable Energy GE Renewable Energy is an American wind turbine manufacturer division of General Electric headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Greater Paris, France focusing on production of energy from renewable sources. Its portfolio of products includes wi ...

who will supply 38 5.5 MW Cypress turbines.

Balance of plant Balance of plant (BOP) is a term generally used in the context of power engineering to refer to all the supporting components and auxiliary systems of a power plant needed to deliver the energy, other than the generating unit itself. These may inclu ...

will be provided by Zenviron. RES Group will continue as Construction and Asset Managers. RES Group obtained permits in 2018 for a 120 MW solar development with battery storage on adjoining land. No date for construction of this phase has been announced.

Stages

# Stage 1, the first stage of the project, consists of 61

3XM class

, each with a hub height, and turbine diameter, with a maximum rated output of 3.7 MW, totaling to a maximum capacity of 225.7 MW. # Stage 2 Stage 2 will consist of 38 GE Cypress class

each with hub height of and rotor diameter of and a nameplate capacity of 5.5 MW totaling a maximum capacity of 209 MW.

External links

Murra Warra Wind Farm

Murra Warra Solar & Storage Project

References

{{Wind farms in Australia Wind farms in Victoria (Australia) Wimmera

History

Stages

External links

See also

References