Murra Warra work starts
Giant ‘embeds’ that will connect wind towers to concrete foundations for the first stage of a Murra Warra Wind Farm between Horsham and Warracknabeal will arrive at the site this month.
A Senvion-downer consortium is building the farm for developers RES Australia and Macquarie Capital.
Senvion has ordered 20 embeds from Keppel Prince Engineering in Portland.
Geelong company Thornton Engineering is manufacturing 30 adjusting devices for the embeds.
The overall wind-farm site covers 4250 hectares of farmland and 11 land holdings and will ultimately include 116 turbines with an expected operational lifespan of more than 25 years.
It will include 75 kilometres of internal roads and tracks, have an operations and maintenance building, car parking, a terminal station and four meteorological masts.
The tip of the tower blades will be up to 220 metres at their highest point, similar to the height of a nearby Dooen radio tower.
An independent study shows stage one and two of the project might generate an overall economic stimulus valued at up to $79.5-million.
This is based on construction and operational employment and spending, rates income to councils, landowner lease payments and an annual community fund of $4.2-million.
Stage one of the project includes the installation of 61 turbines, each tower weighing about 433 tonnes, which will have the ability to generate enough electricity to power 220,000 average houses annually.
The project is likely to help in the reduction of up to 900,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year.