Construction of the Crookwell 2 Wind Farm will be undertaken thanks to a 20-year “Feed-in Tariff Entitlement”, which was awarded by the Government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in August 2016 to the company Crookwell Development Pty Ltd (CDPL) when it won the latest renewables auction promoted by this government body.
CDPL is one of the companies owned by Global Power Generation Australia Pty Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of GPG. This project involves a 20-year Contract for Difference and the transferral over to the Government of ACT of the green certificates generated, as part of its 100% renewable commitment for the territory in 2020. The contract is for a limited generation of 91 MW at the point of connection and the initial investment will amount to 177 M$ Australian, some 122 M€.
The part of Australia where the wind farm will be located is known as the Southern Tablelands, in the State of New South Wales, and is located some 100 Km north-east of the federal capital, Canberra. The wind farm will cover some 2,000 Ha and will have an installed power capacity of 96.04 MW (91 MW at the point of connection) from 28 wind turbines. 5 x 33 kV circuits will be built to transport this power over 55 Km, which will connect the wind turbines to the transformer substation to raise the voltage from 33 to 330 kV for subsequent connection to the transport grid. Operations and maintenance of the wind farm will be undertaken by General Electric, the wind turbine manufacturer, during the first five years.
First generation asset in Australia
At present, the project is undergoing the procedure for contracting the local site engineering and obtaining the amendment to the environmental licence for installing wind turbines, a situation that has no impact on the start of construction for the civil and electrical infrastructure, which has already been authorised in the original licence. The scheduled date for the launch of commercial operations by the wind farm is September 2018.
The Crookwell 2 project represents construction of the first generation asset owned by GPG in Australia, opening up new opportunities in a country with great potential for energy projects in terms of the renewables sector, both photovoltaic power plants due to its solar index and wind farms due to the amount of wind. The incorporation of these 91 MW contributes to compliance with the strategic objective of GPG for 2018 to increase its generation capacity by 100 MW, of which the goal is for 80% to come from renewable energies.
To increase innovation and demonstrate the commitment to local economic development, a key requirement from the Government of ACT for the projects taking part in the auction, the “Renewable Power to Gas (ReP2G)” initiative has been proposed. This involves the financing and transfer of knowledge for research and development in cutting-edge technologies for generation and the use of hydrogen from renewable production surplus, as well as in other power technologies focused on hydrogen.