MT EMERALD’S TALL TOWERS READY TO DELIVER WINDS OF CHANGE
IN about a fortnight the first turbines at Mt Emerald’s $380 million wind farm will whirr into action.
About 30 members of the Community Consultative Committee and their families toured the site of the 180MW renewable energy project on the Atherton Tableland yesterday.
Already, 42 of the farm’s 53 towers have been erected and are visible from the Kennedy Highway between Tolga and Walkamin.
Ratch Australia community engagement facilitator Kim Forde said the first part of the energisation process, where the first two turbines would begin turning, would start in two weeks.
“They will start to turn two towers at a time, and they will generate some power. They will move those two around the site to make sure everything is working,” Ms Forde said. “We are still aiming to be fully operational by October.
“The roads are nearly completed, the cabling is mostly in and the energisation is the last major part of the process.”
The visitors were taken to tower site nine yesterday which offered the best view across the Mt Emerald Wind Farm site.
Ms Forde said most visitors were surprised by how much had been achieved.
Community Consultative Committee members last visited the site a year ago.
All turbines on the site will be switched on once energy regulators deem the project safe and viable to proceed.
An official opening with a chance for members of the public to see the completed wind farm could be held in November.
In October last year, the process of trucking 159 turbine components from the port of Cairns through the Tablelands via the Palmerston Highway to the Walkamin site began.
When complete, the Mt Emerald Wind Farm is expected to supply about one-third of the Far North’s power needs.
Opponents of the project had made claims of the harmful health side-effects from the 90m high turbines and their 50m long blades, accusations of a conflict of interest and the impact the development could have on the northern quolls.