{"id":257486,"date":"2020-04-30T18:16:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T08:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=257486"},"modified":"2020-07-11T10:25:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T00:25:10","slug":"last-blade-locked-in-at-coopers-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/04\/30\/last-blade-locked-in-at-coopers-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Blade Locked In At Coopers Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The final turbine blade is hoisted into position last week (Photo: AGL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 30, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Coopers Gap wind farm project has passed a major milestone with the\u00a0completion of construction of the final turbine.<\/p>\n

AGL Head of Construction Brian McEvoy said on Thursday the final blade on the 123rd turbine was hoisted into place by crane last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a significant milestone for everyone involved in the Coopers Gap Wind Farm project including the owner, the Powering Australian Renewables Fund,\u201d Mr McEvoy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt continues a process that began in early 2018 and which included transporting more than 1,200 components more than 300 kilometres from the Port of Brisbane over a mountain range to the Darling Downs site, where the giant turbines were assembled and erected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of the achievement is underlined by the fact that each of the blades are more than 60 metres long, the nacelle housing the generating parts weighed 90 tonnes, and they were lifted more than 100 metres into the air hundreds of times to be fitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 200 people from the GE-Catcon consortium worked on site at the peak of construction work but this will wind down to about 20 once operations begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr McEvoy said 96 of the 123 turbines had been commissioned and 182MW of power were being generated into the National Electricity Market.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The wind farm will gradually ramp up to full capacity of 453MW.<\/p>\n

Mr McEvoy said the $850 million project was expected to be completed in the second half of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could not have got to this point without the strong support from all of our key stakeholders including the Queensland Government, the Western Downs and South Burnett regional councils, local landowners, the Australian Energy Market Operator and Powerlink Queensland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s satisfying to reach this important milestone knowing we\u2019ve done it safely and supporting the community in which we are located by focusing much of our spending on local businesses and contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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