Wind turbines are awesome. They’re beautiful. At least we think they are — but we’re biased, right? If you’re the kind of person that prefers to burn some coal or natural gas to light their home at night, you probably won’t be so happy that work to build New South Wales’ largest wind farm is well underway, and it’ll feature one of the largest wind turbines in the entire country.
Aust’s biggest wind turbine blades arrive into Newcastle destined for White Rock Wind Farm. Each blade is 60m! @A_J_Marshall @GlenExaminer pic.twitter.com/9oxhuXJjui
— Aus Wind Alliance (@AusWindAll) October 16, 2016
The blades for some of the turbines at White Rock Wind Farm in the New England Tablelands arrived into Newcastle port over the weekend, and each measure a massive 59.5 metres in length. That shipment includes eight 2.5-megawatt Goldwind turbines and these massive blades. The biggest blades of any wind turbine in Australia — for the time being, at least — means the farm will produce the most power possible per installation.
This is the first of 700 oversize loads of wind turbine components that’ll be trucked along the New England Highway to White Rock over the next couple of years, to build Stage 1 of the project where 70 turbines will be constructed to produce 175 megawatts at maximum power and provide energy to up to 75,000 homes annually.
Member for New England Barnaby Joyce is, surprisingly, on the side of renewables — probably especially when it’s in his electorate and the installation would provide the potential for hundreds of jobs in the area. With up to 119 wind turbines and 300 megawatts of energy on the table, White Rock Wind Farm will, a few years down the track, be a significant part of Australia’s renewable energy portfolio.