Victoria switches on what will be world’s biggest onshore wind farm

Twenty years ago, a small group of sheep farmers in Victoria’s central west had a vision to drought-proof their farms with a few wind turbines.

On Friday, farmer Kevin Blake finally pressed a button summoning to life one of those turbines – one element of what will be the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere, and the biggest onshore wind farm in the world.

Kevin Blake is one of many local farmers who were integral in the development of the Golden Plains wind farm.Credit: Justin McManus

“We’re very proud to be involved with this process as landholders, because it’s about sustainability of our farms,” he said.

Life on the farm can be tough. Blake and his late wife ran sheep for decades, riding the peaks and troughs of the wool industry’s unpredictable market. Then there’s the changing climate to contend with.

“Look out here at these canola crops,” he said on Friday, standing among stunted rows. “They should be three foot high, but they’re barely 12 inches ... we’re experiencing a very dry autumn and winter, and things are going to be difficult into the future.”

Blake, who owns more than 800 hectares of land outside Rokewood, a tiny community between Ballarat and Colac, continues to run ewes and lambs beneath the towering turbines.

“It takes up very little land mass of our farms. We still continue to farm and provide food for the people ... and that’s what’s important to us. That’s what we’re about.”

From humble beginnings, the Golden Plains wind farm has gathered pace to become a world leader.

Some 40 local landholders have signed contracts to host wind turbines on their properties, with 52 turbines, transmission lines, more than 100 kilometres of roads and a power station built over the past 18 months. Another 163 turbines are due to be constructed by the end of 2026.

The scale of the wind farm is vast: when it is finished, it will contain as much steel as two Sydney Harbour Bridges.

Two turbines have begun feeding energy into the Victorian grid. Once the wind farm is complete, its 215 turbines will produce more than 4000 gigawatt-hours of energy each year – enough to power 765,000 homes – and meet 9 per cent of Victoria’s energy requirements.

TagEnergy’s Andrew Riggs, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and farmer Kevin Blake.Credit: Justin McManus

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the project would be a crucial element of helping Victoria meet its target of 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035.

“As it stands, 20 per cent of all of Victoria’s electricity generation comes from wind generation, and that excludes this project here. So this is only going to increase in terms of its contribution to our renewable energy targets,” she said.

The $4 billion project has many parents: majority owned by TagEnergy, with additional investment from Ingka Group, it was backed by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

TagEnergy managing partner Andrew Riggs said the first stage of the project alone would provide 4.5 per cent of Victoria’s energy, and would drive electricity prices down.

“I’ve been involved in the electricity industry here for 25 years, and what I can say is, nothing brings down prices quicker than renewables, and it’s wonderful that it’s now less expensive than fossil fuels,” he said.

“That means we don’t need government subsidies. This project is 100 per cent funded by the sales we make to our customers ... It’s completely a commercial enterprise funded by our sales and also backed by our investors, private equity.”

Each turbine – as well as providing energy to the Victorian grid – will represent a pay cheque for the local community. For every turbine, Blake said, $1000 will go into a community fund – $215,000 a year – to pay for local projects. When the project is complete, $1million worth of rates will be paid to Golden Plains Shire Council every year.

D’Ambrosio said the government’s policies and renewable energy targets had created investor certainty in Victoria.

“These renewable energy projects provide us with that cheap, clean energy that is so essential to a successful energy transition away from old, increasingly unreliable coal generation to the new clean and cheap power that comes from renewable energy projects.”

Acknowledging there were pockets of community resistance to wind farms, Riggs said the Golden Plains project showed landholders and regional communities stood to benefit from large-scale projects.

“We think the public debate and discourse is healthy. It gets better outcomes. Hopefully, it gets the communities to accept renewables more than in the past.”

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