Economic benefit from wind project
Early figures from a study into the economic impact of Ararat Wind Farm suggest the project has injected about $5-million in ‘nonlocal’ construction-worker spending into the region.
The study, commissioned by Ararat Wind Farm and parent partner Renewable Energy Australia, has also revealed the spending has supported about 25 jobs in Ararat district’s service sector.
These include jobs in motels, hotels, cafes and restaurants.
The estimated $5-million in ‘non-local’ spending is on top of $21-million in regional contracts and spending by the project’s principal contractor, and involved regional businesses involved in services such as earthworks, fencing and signs.
Contractors have erected all 75 turbines involved in the project and connected 72 of them to the national electricity grid.
Ararat Wind Farm general manager Stuart Liddle said a project team hoped to complete the $450-million farm a month ahead of schedule.
He said Ararat Wind Farm officials were planning an official opening ceremony in the middle of June.
“It has been a very successful project,” Mr Liddle said.
Wind farm construction has been a joint venture between Downer and GE.
The Ararat project has provided an example for the State Government to use in a promotional campaign to develop more renewable energy projects across the state.
The government has adapted a video of the wind farm’s construction for promotion material. Ararat Wind Farm, with towers measuring 135 metres to the tip of 103-metre rotors, is the third-largest wind farm in Australia.
It will generate enough electricity to power about 120,000 households a year, with 40 percent going to the ACT as part of a 2015 deal that shored up the project.
The 240-megawatt farm, which has included construction of 52 kilometres of internal roads and 21.5km of transmission lines, has a projected life-span of 25 years.
Project developer RES Australia selected Ararat as a suitable location for the farm in 2007 and gained ministerial approvals from 2010.
A consortium of RES, General Electric Company, Partners Group on behalf of its clients, and Canadian pension fund Optrust owns Ararat Wind Farm.
The farm was the first major wind farm contract to be signed following restored bipartisan political support for a Renewable Energy Target in June 2015.