The Wind Farm at Walwa
THE Gullen Range Wind Farm is “on schedule” to begin construction work this year. The developers, Goldwind, received planning permits from the State Government in August 2010 with a period of five years before the permission lapsed.
The project was declared a Major Project under the State Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. The site is broadly broken into two sections with the Kialla and Bannister sections to the north and the Pomeroy and Gurrundah sections to the south, to contain 73 turbines.
Situated on the Great Dividing Range on a generally north – south oriented ridgeline, the distance from the northern proposed turbine (at Kialla) to the southernmost (at Gurrundah) is 22 kilometres.
The substation will be located in the centre of the site for connection to the 330kV network owned by Transgrid. A spokesman for Goldwind said the first stage of the wind farm will produce 158.5 MW of renewable power at full capacity.
“The final rated power figure will be determined based on the final lay-out of the wind farm – particularly the turbine location suitability for the 1.5 MW and 2.5 MW turbines,” he said.
Associated infrastructures and facilities will include a substation and office space, underground power and telecommunications cablings, a wind monitoring tower and access tracks.
“Within the first six months of operation, when generating at full power, Gullen Range Wind Farm will produced enough green energy to offset the amount of energy (CO2 equivalent) that was used to manufacture the turbines,” the spokesman said.
Goldwind claim that in one year of operating the wind farm will offset 445,000 tonnes of CO2. “It will then go on to produce clean energy for the next twenty years, helping NSW and Australia meet its energy demands by utilising renewable sources.”
Goldwind added that it will welcome questions and comments about the wind farm, with details available on the Contact Us website page.
Community Enhancement At the July meeting of Upper Lachlan Council Goldwind advised of its plans for Community Enhancement fund administration.
It is proposed that a committee comprising representatives of Upper Lachlan and Goulburn Mulwaree Council, together with community members, will be appointed. Upper Lachlan (within whose boundaries most of the turbines will be built) will be the administering body.
Council will also have the right to return to the committee any proposal it feels inappropriate. Upper Lachlan Mayor will be chairman and the Council will also have a “floor” member.