One of Australia’s oldest wind farms, and the first built in South Australia, has confirmed it will push back its planned closure date by seven years, now closing in 2033, some 30 years after it opened.
The Starfish Hill Wind Farm opened in 2003 and helped kick off the remarkable transition in South Australia that has led to the closure of the state’s coal-fired generating plants in 2016, and a 75% share of wind and solar in recent years. 12 months. The state aims to reach 100% net renewable energy by 2027.
The facility at Cape Jervis features just 22 Danish-made NM64 turbines with a capacity of 1.5 MW each, giving the wind farm a total capacity of 33 MW. (The project started with 23 units, but one turbine caught fire in 2010 and was not replaced.)
The new wind farms feature turbines with a capacity of around 6 MW and a blade height of up to 260 metres, compared to the blade height of 100 meters at Starfish Hill.
The wind farm’s life extension is not surprising given it announced a new 10-year power purchase agreement with Adelaide-based renewable energy developer and retailer Zen Energy last month. The extension was revealed on the market operator’s generation information page.
But the longevity of the Starfish Hill project also serves to disprove some of the nonsense circulating on social media, and unfortunately amplified in some mainstream media, that wind farms have a limited lifespan of 10 to 15 years and that machinery cannot be recycled.
Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni this week sported a pair of sneakers made from recycled wind turbine blades in Spain, where the wind industry is much older and where multiple recycling facilities are being built.
De Brenni noted that 90% of wind turbine machinery is easily recyclable because it consists of steel and other metals. The challenging part is the blades made of fiber and resin, but innovative solutions like shoes show that solutions can be found.
Images via: ratchaustralia.com
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