December 4, 2018
The first two turbines have been erected at the Coopers Gap Wind Farm with the project expected to begin generating electricity by next March or April.
The first turbine was assembled a fortnight ago, and a second one this week.
AGL General Manager of Development and Construction David Johnson said it was a significant milestone.
“Projects like this involve enormous efforts by many stakeholders,” Mr Johnson said.
“The logistics of getting the turbine components to site is just one of the areas which can prove particularly challenging.
“We’ve worked with many government agencies like QPS (police) and DTMR (Department of Transport) to get the wind farm’s components transported from the Port of Brisbane to our site, and they’ve been fantastic.
“We’re very thankful for the way they’ve worked so closely with us.”
Mr Johnson said construction of the rest of the wind farm was also progressing on schedule.
The 275kV Powerlink substation near Niagara Road is now complete, both main transformers have been energised and the 33kV switchyard is expected to be operational in mid-December.
Concrete foundations for 95 of the 123 turbines have also been built, along with the wind farm’s internal access roads.
Wind Farm site manager Michael Yeo said the process of assembling the turbines was a two-step process.
A pre-pop crew goes in first to position the necessary electrical components and assemble the tower’s first two cylinders.
After this, the site’s main crane is brought in to add the remaining cylinders and each turbine’s nacelle, hub and blades.
Each turbine tower is 110 metres tall; when the 67 metre blades are attached, the total height of each unit is between 177 and 180 metres.
The turbines will be spread around the Coopers Gap Wind Farm in 10 distinct groups, with underground cables feeding their output to the Niagara Road substation before entering the national energy grid.
AGL site representative Ray King said AGL has been arranging site visits for wind farm landowners and owners of adjoining properties so they could get a good idea about how the project was progressing.
[Photos and video: AGL]
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