South Australia approves Tarong Energy wind farm
Date: 19-Apr-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
The Starfish Hill Wind Farm Project, to be established by Queensland state-owned Tarong Energy, will generate up to 34.5 megawatts of electricity, providing enough power to meet demand from about two percent of the state's residential customers.
"The project will provide the state with much needed extra generation capacity and improved security and quality of supply with minimal environmental impact," Energy Minister Patrick Conlon said in a statement.
Tarong said the project, its first move into wind generation and its first electricity asset in South Australia, was part of a strategy of diversifying its generation fuels and sites.
Federal government legislation last year required electricity retailers to source an extra 9,500 gigawatt hours of power from renewable energy by 2010, leading to a surge in proposed wind generation projects, particularly along southern coastlines.
The Australian Wind Energy Association says 72 MW of capacity has been installed to date, and there is around 1,800 MW planned before 2005.
Tarong has 1,400 MW of coal fired generation and 500 MW of hydro generation in Queensland and is completing a 450 MW expansion of its coal-fired plant.
Construction on Starfish Hill is due to start next month and the wind farm is due to be fully operational by autumn 2003.
