Wattle Point Wind Farm 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 ...

near Edithburgh on the

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, which has been operating since April 2005. When it was officially opened in June of that year it was

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's largest wind farm at . The installation consists of 55

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s covering and was built at a cost of 180 million Australian dollars. It is connected to ETSA Utilities electricity transmission system via a 132

kilovolt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). Definition One volt is defined as the electric potential between two point ...

line. The location was chosen after identification as having one of mainland Australia's highest average wind speeds. The wind farm was officially opened by South Australian Premier

Mike Rann Michael David Rann (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and List of Australi ...

and Southern Hydro Chairman, Dr Keith Turner. The opening was opposed by some of the local

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

s, the Adjahdura (or Narungga). A descendant of the traditional landowners argued that construction desecrated an ancient

burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many dead people are buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ) implies th ...

, disturbing skeletons in the construction of turbine number four. Work was halted in late 2004 after the discovery of human remains, artefacts and tools. The Aboriginal Affairs Department, and the developers, separately commissioned

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

reports resulting in the development allowed to proceed with five towers being repositioned. Both reports concluded that the bones had come from elsewhere on the peninsula, being later reburied at Wattle Point. The region's aboriginal community was divided on construction; Narungga National Aboriginal Corporation supporting development and the Narungga Heritage Committee strongly opposing. Wattle Point Wind Farm was built and owned by Southern Hydro Pty Limited. Southern Hydro was owned by

Meridian Energy Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 35 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending December 2014, and i ...

of New Zealand until October 2005, when it was bought by the

Australian Gas Light Company The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was an Australian gas and electricity retailer. It was formed in Sydney in 1837 and supplied town gas for the first public lighting of a street lamp in Sydney in 1841. AGL was the second company to list on ...

(AGL). The windfarm was acquired by

Alinta Alinta Limited was an Australian energy infrastructure company. It has grown from a small, Western Australia–based gas distributor and retailer to the largest energy infrastructure company in Australia. It was bought in 2007 by a consortium i ...

in October 2006, as part of an asset merger with AGL, and subsequently by the

ANZ Bank The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, commonly known as ANZ Bank, is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is Australia's second-largest bank by assets and fo ...

's Energy Infrastructure Trust, for 225 million dollars on 23 April 2007. The District Council of Yorke Peninsula approved a second wind farm, Wattle Point Stage 2. However it did not proceed due to insufficient capacity in the electrical transmission lines.personal communication with Acting Director Development and Community Services, Yorke Peninsula Council The facility is closely connected to the Dalrymple ESCRI battery, a 30-megawatt battery storage facility at Dalrymple substation about to the north.

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Wind power and wind farms in South Australia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wattle Point Wind Farm Wind farms in South Australia Yorke Peninsula 2005 establishments in Australia Energy infrastructure completed in 2005

See also

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External links