Flyers Creek Windfarm in Australia Achieves Planning Approval, Questions RET Review

Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Infigen Energy Limited (New South Wales, Australia) announced that the Flyers Creek windfarm project recently secured planning approvals from the New South Wales (NSW) Planning Department. The proposed site for Flyers Creek is in Central New South Wales, 200 kilometers west of Sydney.

Infigen received approvals this month to install 42 wind turbines at the windfarm site, each with a capacity of approximately 3 megawatts (MW), to produce a total of 126 MW. The power produced will meet the electricity needs of the local community, with the remaining power to be sent to the grid.

The windfarm site is 10 kilometers from the transmission line between Orange and the Cadia mine site. Hence, Infigen will construct a 33/132-kilovolt (kV) substation and a 132-kV overhead transmission line, including 33-kV underground cables to connect the turbines to the new onsite substation.

The Flyers Creek project, which represents an investment of more than $195 million, is the largest windfarm to gain approval in New South Wales (NSW), since the introduction of a new planning rule for windfarms in December 2011 by the NSW state government.

Infigen proposed the project nearly five years ago and had been going through several approvals and community consents to reach this phase. Although the planning approval is a key milestone in the project development phase, Infigen still faces several challenges, including the outcome of the national Renewable Energy Target (RET) review, which could make it tougher to secure power purchase agreements. Several windfarm projects in Australia are in a state of flux and are struggling to find power purchasers. In addition to the RET review outcome, the wind project is still facing some opposition from the local community.

Infigen plans to begin construction on the windfarm toward end of this year or early 2015, subject to changes in accordance with the RET announcement. According to the company, the project construction could deliver up to 100 jobs to local people. Major contractors and turbine selection will be made in the next few months.

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