Lake Bonney

Overview

The Lake Bonney wind farm is located on the Woakwine Range, about 2 km from the eastern shore of Lake Bonney, near Millicent in South Australia. The wind farm was constructed in three separate stages:

• Stage 1 (80.5 MW) – began commercial operation in March 2005
• Stage 2 (159 MW) – began commercial operation in September 2008
• Stage 3 (39 MW) – began commercial operation in July 2010

The combined capacity of the wind farm, 278.5 MW, means that the wind farms generate power for approximately 110,000 homes a year. It has 112 turbines and covers more than 22 square kilometres – with the turbines themselves only occupying less than 1 hectare of land.

The wind farm is located on the Limestone Coast, one of Australia’s most prominent wind farming regions. The coastal area benefits from consistently strong winds coming off the Southern Ocean – ideal conditions for wind energy generation.

Economy

Infigen Energy has spent about $700 million on the three stages of the project, with roughly half of that investment going into Australian goods and services.

The project includes towers fabricated by Keppel Prince at Portland, transformers from Wilson Transformers and cabling from Nexans Olex manufactured in Australia, as well as design work and civil, mechanical and electrical works at the site and at the substation.

Infigen Energy employed about 200 people over the six years of construction to build the three stages of the project. In addition we (and Vestas) currently employ 20 people directly at the site, as well as 25 local contractors and part-time workers.

We also contribute approximately $750,000 per annum to the local economy through rental payments to the 24 local families who host our wind turbines on their properties.

Overview

Turbines