Acciona Invites Tenders for Mortlake Windfarm, Shelves Plans to Build Allendale

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Acciona Energy Oceania Private Limited (Victoria, Australia), a subsidiary of Acciona S.A. (Madrid, Spain), recently won development approval from the Victoria government for its proposed 76-megawatt (MW) Mortlake South Windfarm. The $200 million windfarm will feature 51 wind turbines and will be built in southwest area of the state, approximately five kilometres south of Mortlake, Victoria.

"Acciona's proposal represents approximately $200 million in investment that will bring many benefits to the local community in the Mortlake region, including up to 100 local construction jobs and approximately 10 permanent jobs on site," said Andrew Thomson, the managing director of Acciona Energy.

The exact time frames for construction have not been finalized; however, the recent approval from the government has motivated Acciona, which is currently looking for turbine suppliers and contractors to build the project. The project team has set a construction target for the end of 2013, if everything goes as planned.

In related news, Acciona said on February 13, 2013, that it will not proceed with plans to build Allendale Windfarm project, which was to be built near Allendale East, in southeast South Australia. The company had planned to install 46 turbines, which would have produced up to 69 MW of electricity, enough to power 43,000 homes every year.

Until early 2013, Acciona conducted several investigations on the economic viability of the project. However, the current economic market conditions in Australia proved that it is not favourable to continue with the development and construction of the windfarm, which forced the company to shelve the plans forever.

Acciona continues development activities on several other windfarm projects that are in various stages of planning and approvals, predominantly in New South Wales.

Acciona Energy announced that the long-mooted plans to build the 69-MW Berrimal windfarm are being revived. The company is performing design changes and reviews to the project's initial proposal. The windfarm would be located between Wedderburn and St. Arnaud.

Acciona Energy recently submitted an application to Buloke Shire Council to extend the time remaining on the existing Berrimal windfarm planning permit. In addition, Acciona is conducting studies to review the initial project layout, which has an approval to install 16 turbines, each with a capacity of 1.5 MW. The new plan will have 23 wind turbines of 3 MW each, which will generate 69 MW.

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