Macarthur Wind Farm

The Macarthur Wind Farm is a wind farm located in Macarthur, Victoria, Australia, near Hamilton, 260 km west of Melbourne. It is on a 5,500 ha site which has an installed capacity of 420 megawatts (MW).[2][3] Based on a capacity factor of around 35%, it is estimated that the long-term average generation will be approximately 1,250 GWh per year. Its actual capacity factor is much lower, with a historical average of 26.29% since 2013.

Macarthur Wind Farm
CountryAustralia
LocationVictoria
Coordinates38.049005°S 142.1905876°E / -38.049005; 142.1905876
StatusOperational[1]
Commission dateJan 2013
Construction costA$1b
Owner(s)H. R. L. Morrison & Co / Malakoff
Operator(s)AGL Energy
Wind farm
TypeOnshore
Hub height85m
Rotor diameter112m
Site elevation165m
Power generation
Units operational140
Make and modelVestas: V112-3.0MW
Nameplate capacity420 MW[1]
Capacity factor26.29% (average 2013-2020)
Annual net output967.3 GWh (average 2013-2020)
External links
Websitewww.agl.com.au/about-agl/how-we-source-energy/renewable-energy/macarthur-wind-farm

It is the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere generating enough power for 220,000 homes and abating 1.7 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, at a capacity factor of 35%.[4] The wind farm comprises 140 Vestas V112-3.0MW wind turbines manufactured in Denmark.[2]

The project cost about A$1 billion and was fully operational in January 2013.[1] It was constructed by Vestas and Leighton Contractors.[5] The first turbines were connected to the grid in September 2012.[6] AGL also invested an additional $27m in the substation, which is completely owned by the company.

History

The project was proposed in 2004 and approved by the Victorian government in October 2006.

The project was developed by a joint venture formed by AGL Energy and Meridian Energy, a New Zealand-based power generating company, with works starting in 2010. The project was fully operational in January 2013.[1]

In 2013, Meridian sold its 50% share in the wind farm to Malaysian power company Malakoff Corporation Berhad for A$650 million.[7][8] In September 2015, AGL Energy sold its 50% stake in the wind farm to H. R. L. Morrison & Co for $532m.[9]

AGL Energy will operate and maintain the wind farm in place of Morrison & Co and Malakoff. It also reserves the rights to all renewable energy certificates and electricity production until 2038.[10]

Operations

The wind farm registered its first grid output in September 2012 and reached full output in March 2013. The generation table uses eljmkt nemlog to obtain generation values for each month. The URL must be formatted as: "http://nemlog.com.au/show/unit/YYYYMMDD/YYYYMMDD/?k1=GENCODE" Macarthur's code is MACARTH1, so that is used.

Macarthur Wind Farm Generation (MWh)
Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2012 130,077 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 26* 16,862* 36,463* 76,726*
2013 1,081,695 64,870* 71,095* 89,292* 65,862 94,835 69,212 110,056 161,313 116,783 123,371 59,772 55,234
2014 921,516 88,586 64,894 57,826 67,697 56,297 91,760 128,794 59,464 84,296 84,224 68,951 68,727
2015 999,626 97,213 61,516 74,953 57,059 122,926 74,144 116,023 94,537 69,370 84,615 67,932 79,338
2016 1,020,744 73,619 52,313 53,025 69,527 134,943 92,693 135,718 102,208 69,759 91,122 78,019 67,798
2017 888,669 58,217 62,226 70,416 36,579 58,751 42,026 126,122 103,920 135,307 74,841 56,721 63,543
2018 1,069,469 62,680 73,665 88,828 57,723 105,689 86,562 161,645 132,595 91,421 81,484 65,725 61,452
2019 977,014 49,132 70,374 67,309 70,299 96,318 91,265 106,790 114,631 82,854 72,786 78,356 76,900
2020 779,604 73,238 14,531 79,991 70,096 95,739 66,404 60,178 78,541 25,518 80,581 66,617 68,170
2021 69,269

Note: Asterisk indicates power output was limited during the month.

Performance

Macarthur has consistently been one of the worst performing wind farms since its construction in 2012.[11] It was intended to have a capacity factor around 34%[12] and generate 1240 GWh of energy per annum.[12]

However, the most the farm has generated was 1081 GWh in 2013, and has consistently averaged around 994 GWh, which corresponds to a capacity factor of 27%.

See also

References
  1. "Macarthur Wind Farm". AGL.
  2. "AGL venture plans $1b wind farm". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 August 2010.
  3. Alexandra Weaver (17 November 2011). "Giant turbine blades arrive for Macarthur farm". The Standard.
  4. Perry, Michael (22 August 2010). "Australia Steps Up Renewable Energy Efforts". The New York Times.
  5. "AGL and New Zealand firm Meridian Energy to set up $1 billion Renewable energy in Victoria". Power-Gen. 16 August 2010.
  6. "Macarthur Wind Farm Update". AGL. October 2012. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  7. "Meridian sells its share in Macarthur wind farm" (Press release). Meridian Energy. 28 June 2013.
  8. "Malaysia's Malakoff Buys Stake in Australian Wind Farm". The Wall Street Journal. 28 June 2013.
  9. "AGL sells Macarthur Wind Farm stake" (Press release). The Australian. 8 September 2015.
  10. "Macarthur Wind Farm, Australia". Power-technology.com.
  11. Parkinson, Giles (11 August 2017). "Australia's biggest wind farm is also its least productive". RenewEconomy. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  12. "AGL completes the sale of Macarthur Wind Farm". AGL. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
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