Turbine blade puts fresh spin on renewable energy
It was just 4o Celsius on a sparkling Ararat morning and heaters were cranking in houses and business throughout the regional city as a specialised truck carrying the 50-metre blade managed to round the corner into McLellan Street, and pulled up majestically beside the frosty grass of Ararat’s Kokoda Park. Scarf-swathed townspeople joined politicians, investors and schoolchildren in the white marquee on the lawn, to mark this milestone for the $450 million wind farm, and to celebrate the creation of local jobs, income for farmers, and clean power for all.
Ararat Wind Farm will power more than 120,000 homes when it is completed in 2017. It is currently ahead of its rigorous construction timetable; having only broken ground in November 2015, it now has bases constructed for many of the 75 GE 3.2-103 brilliant wind turbines destined to spin wind into energy on these hills. The first in what will become a procession of blades and turbine towers to travel up the Pyrenees Highway from Portland also signals a peak employment period at the site, with the number of workers increasing to 165 for the remaining scope of work.
The townspeople of Ararat gather for the signing of the first GE wind-turbine blade destined to turn for 25 years on their part of the Great Dividing Range—a windy ridge a few minutes out of town.Welcomed by Matt Rebbeck, COO of RES Australia, the developer of the Ararat project, Premier Andrews took to the podium to say, “Today I am very pleased to be here, obviously, on such a significant occasion for jobs and prosperity in this special part of our state, but I’m also very pleased to be able to announce a key plank in our first emissions pledge …”
He spoke of the lack of confidence in renewables that Tony Abbott’s Federal Government had imposed on the industry by conducting a review of the renewable energy target during 2014 and until mid-2015—an uncertainty which caused investors to withdraw, companies to close and workers in many associated companies and industries to be laid off.
It was fitting that the Premier announced a new renewable-energy era at this milestone in the Ararat project. The Ararat Wind Farm had been shepherded by GE and its partners through the worst of RET uncertainty to become the first renewable project off the starting block when the Federal Government, in June 2015, finally set a renewable energy target of 33,000 GWh for 2020, which represented approximately 23.5% of Australia's projected 2020 electricity demand. Other projects remain stalled.
Premier Andrews said, “We have 18 wind farms that have full planning approval—fully planned the last time our party was given the great honour of governing this state. They total around 2,300 megawatts of power capacity—they just need to be built! We just need to send a signal to the market, to those investors that when it comes to renewable energy, and particularly wind energy, Victoria is back in business.”
He emphasised that policies, confidence, certainty and predictability, are important to the still growing and innovating renewable sector, before he declared, “Today, I’m very proud to announce that we are setting a renewable energy generation target of 25% by 2020 and 40% by 2025.”
Our targets will require as much as 5,400 megawatts of new renewable generation capacity to be built.
Lily D’Ambrosio, Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, a passionate advocate of renewable energy, had wielded her spade at the ground-breaking ceremony for Ararat last year, and now took the stage at Kokoda Park to elaborate on the Victorian RET: “To achieve our targets, we will be holding renewable-energy auctions … similar to the ACT model, with project developers bidding for the lowest-cost provider. And we expect that successful bidders will also need to demonstrate benefits to the local community, such as local content and of course jobs.”
Minister D’Ambrosio said the State Government’s renewable-energy target and related policies are expected to generate 4,200 jobs, the majority in regional Victoria, as well as $2.5 billion of investment.
Among the industry leaders invited to attend the Bring on the Blades celebration was Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, the peak body for the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency industry in Australia. Thornton grew up in regional Victoria and was thrilled to be part of this event that signalled an acceleration of government support for clean energy generation.
He said, “What we’re now going to see is a whole range, hundreds of these types of projects move forward in Victoria over the next decade. And that’s incredibly exciting for an industry that’s ready to deliver those projects, to make those investments and employ people, but I think it’s also very exciting for the people of rural and regional Victoria, and the leaders of tomorrow, some of whom we’ve already heard speak today, because I think they recognise more than anyone the massive importance of changing our energy mix and the huge opportunity that comes with that to provide economic opportunity and the jobs of the future.”
He was referring to the school students of Ararat, who played a major part in the ceremonies of the day, and who were acknowledged for their insights and commitment to a sustainable future.
Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews and Lily D’Ambrosio, the state’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, after signing the 50-metre wind-turbine blade at Ararat’s Kokoda Park.Said Premier Andrews in closing his address and before the blade signing and sausage sizzle began, “To all involved thank you so much. It’s a proud day today, and I’m really delighted to be able to share it with you, and I look forward to coming back many times … to celebrate further milestones—more blades, more uprights, more wind farms, more jobs—and Victoria playing its leading role for jobs and economic development and doing the right thing by the planet, our children, and their children as well.”