Onshore Wind

Wind

Gippsland currently hosts three onshore wind farms with Delburn Wind Farm due to be constructed in 2024:

Toora Wind Farm. The 12 turbines making up the Toora Wind Farm share land in southern Victoria with dairy and cattle herds. Farming activity continues undisturbed. The farm has a total capacity of 21 MW, that are capable of generating up to 1.75 MW each, operations commenced in 2001.

Bald Hills Wind Farm. Consisting of 52 wind turbines, each with an electricity generating capacity of 2.05 megawatts (MW) giving the project a total capacity of 106.6MW fully operational in May 2015.

Wonthaggi Wind Farm. Built in 2005, the wind farm infrastructure takes up less than 1% of the land area on a single property used primarily for cattle grazing, capturing wind energy using six 2MW turbines with a total capacity of 12MW.

Delburn Wind Farm, planning permit has been approved by the Minister. Construction is due to commence in late 2024. Delburn Wind Farm will be constructed in the Strzelecki Range to the south of the Latrobe Valley.

Located within the existing HVP plantation, 33 turbines will generate 640,000 MWh of clean energy each year and be connected to the existing electricity grid. This is enough to power 135,000 average Victorian homes, or 85% of Gippsland’s homes.

The Delburn Wind Farm is a joint venture between OSMI Australia and Cubico Sustainable Investments.

OSMI’s founding Directors have been responsible for the development of wind farms at Wonthaggi, Waubra, Bald Hills and Stockyard Hill, totalling more than 800 MW of installed wind capacity.

Visit DEECA’s Wind Energy page for more information about the valuable role that onshore wind plays in enabling us to meet renewable energy targets.

Each megawatt hour of wind energy avoids the generation of around 0.7 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Wind turbines work by capturing the wind’s energy, the top of the turbine faces the wind and the blades are set at exactly the right angle. The air moving past the blades then makes them rotate.

In the nacelle – the non-rotating part at the top of the turbine – the blades’ rotation passes through a drive shaft, often via a gear box, to rotate magnets inside a coil of wire. This produces an alternating current of electricity. Link to a wind energy video playlist

Dimity Taylor lives with her family less than 2 km from the Gullen Range Wind Farm Crookwell, NSW Gundungurra Country. While Dimity is deeply concerned about the health impacts of climate change, she says the wind turbines calm her, knowing they are creating a safer, more secure, healthier + affordable renewable energy future for her kids and everyone in the region.

Curtesy of The New Joneses Season 4 “Good Neighbours” Episode 33 “Farms, Turbines + Towns”