Siemens and Neoen Australia will build Australia’s newest wind farm, which will help the ACT government meet their 90% renewable energy target by 2020.
When up and running, the wind farm in Hornsdale, South Australia, will produce over 400 GWh annually, enough to provide power for more than 70,000 typical Australian homes.
Construction on the project is set to begin immediately. Siemens will provide the turnkey project solution for the wind farm including 32 3.2DD-113 wind turbines with associated civil and electrical infrastructure. Siemens will also maintain the wind farm for Neoen on a long-term maintenance contract signed simultaneously with the EPC contract.
Siemens’ Direct Drive wind turbines utilise a low-speed generator design, coupled directly to the 3-blade rotor, which entirely eliminates the need for gearboxes. This reduces the complexity of the turbines resulting in simpler maintenance requirements.
Each turbine is driven by three blades, each being 55 m in length. They are of a single piece construction, made from fibreglass-reinforced epoxy resin. As a result, all glue joints – the potential weak points that could expose the structure to cracking, water ingress, ice formation and lightning – are eliminated.
Weighing in at over 60 t, each turbine rotor spins at up to 16 rpm. The height of each tower at over 90 m is taller than the flagpole above Parliament House Canberra and the swept area of the blades from a single turbine is greater than the field area of GIO Stadium Canberra. The combined swept area of the turbines is 320,000 sqm, about three and a half times larger than the footprint of Parliament House Canberra.
[Image: Siemens]