The Gunning Wind Farm project is a
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
development in the
Cullerin Range, north-east of
Gunning, in
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. Wind turbines in the farm are visible from the
Hume Highway
The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of t ...
.
The Gunning Wind Farm comprises an
electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station an ...
and operation and maintenance facilities plus 31
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. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...
which send power to the substation via 17 km of underground cabling.
A 14
km-long 132
kV transmission line was constructed to connect the wind farm to the 132 kV Yass-Goulburn transmission line. Turbines generate electricity at 12 kV which travels via underground cables to the substation where it is stepped up to 132 kV to match the grid voltage.
Construction began in April, 2010 and created about 100 jobs, bringing significant economic activity to the
Gunning region. The wind farm was completed in May, 2011.
A great deal of work was done prior to development of the wind farm. Technical studies identified constraints and the best design, with independent consultants engaged to report on:
* flora and fauna
* cultural heritage
* traffic and transport
* geology and hydrology
* landscape and visual amenity
* sound
The wind farm is capable of producing 46.5
MW of clean, renewable energy.
Each of the 1.5 MW turbines at the Gunning Wind Farm can provide sufficient renewable energy to power approximately 750 homes when the wind is blowing and save more than 5,250 tonnes of
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...
a year.
The 31 turbines can power 35,000 homes annually when the wind is blowing
and save more than 162,750 tonnes of
greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
es a year.
See also
*
Cullerin Range Wind Farm
References
External links
*
{{Wind farms in Australia
Wind farms in New South Wales
Gunning, New South Wales