The Silverton Wind Farm is a 199

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...

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 to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind tur ...

situated on the

Barrier Ranges The Barrier Ranges or sometimes the Barrier Range and historically the Stanley's Barrier Range, is a mountain range that comprises a series of hills and higher grounds in the far western region of New South Wales, Australia, surrounding the city ...

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 ...

, built for

AGL Energy AGL Energy Ltd () is an Australian listed public company involved in both the generation and retailing of electricity and gas for residential and commercial use. AGL is Australia's largest electricity generator, and the nation's largest c ...

CATCON Catcon is an Australian construction and civil engineering company based in Adelaide, South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts ...

and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

. On 3 June 2009, the project was approved by the NSW state Government. The project was initially set to begin construction in the first half of 2010, yet several issues caused delays. To begin, the transmission line needed to connect the fully developed wind farm would need to be as long as 300 km, and due to multiple connection options, as well as an expected large cost of the infrastructure, the decision of the final solution was delayed. In 2012, the start-date for construction of the wind farm has been pushed back to 2014, after

decided to give priority to building two solar

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

plants which have received almost A$200m in government funding. The project's planning approval was set to expire on 24 May 2016, however AGL submitted a Modification Application on 25 February 2016 with the sole aim to extend the project's Planning Approval expiry to 2021. On 3 June 2016 that application was granted, giving AGL the option to optimise and build the project within its

Powering Australian Renewables Fund Powering Australian Renewables (PowAR) is an Australian infrastructure investment fund closely associated with but independent from AGL Energy. Initial investment in PowAR was $200M from AGL, and up to $800M from each of QIC Global Infrastructur ...

. The project secured a Power Purchase Agreement with

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power ( CLP Group). EnergyAustralia als ...

for supply of 60% of its annual output until December 2030."Silverton Wind Farm, New South Wales, Australia"
/ref> On 16 May 2017, AGL announced construction had commenced. As of 2019, it had been completed and is now operating. The project uses General Electric 3.43-130 wind turbines with a hub height of 110m. It is expected to operate at a capacity factor of 44.7%, generating 780 GWh of energy annually.

Operations

The wind farm began grid output in May 2018 and was fully commissioned in May 2020 following long setbacks due to grid issues. These problems are reflected in the energy generation until then, with the plant being constrained during the day reducing its capacity factor. The generation table use
eljmkt nemlog
to obtain generation values for each month. Note: Asterisk indicates power output was limited during the month.

References

External links

*
Project factsheet and milestone tracker
{{wind farms in Australia
Proposed wind farms in Australia Wind farms in New South Wales

Operations

See also

References

External links