WORK on the $450-million Ararat Wind Farm has stepped up a notch.
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Construction of the 50-kilometre road network that will link the yet-to-be-built turbines continues at pace.
Half of the 106 poles for a 20-kilometre transmission line between the wind farm site and a power transformer to be constructed at Elmhurst have now been installed.
Two transformers will feed electricity generated by the 75-turbine farm into the main power grid.
One of the transformers is at the the wind farm and the other is at Elmhurst.
Victorian-based Wilson Transformer Company was awarded the $4-million contract in October to supply two power transformers for the electrical substation.
Construction of the first of the 80-metre turbine stands will start about Easter. Trucks will haul the 30-metre sections to the wind farm site.
Portland’s Keppel Prince will build 35 of the turbine towers for the wind farm.
Two cranes will be based at the site and work in tandem to put up the stands and place the blades.
Each blade measures about 50-metres in length.
A consortium of Renewable Energy Systems and GE Partners Group co-owns the Ararat Wind Farm.
The 240-megawatt farm will be the third largest wind farm in Australia.
The Ararat Wind Farm was the first major wind farm contract to be signed following restored bipartisan support for the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target in June.
The project also benefits from a power purchase agreement with the Australian Capital Territory government.
These agreement guarantees the purchase of about 40 per cent of the energy produced from the wind farm.
The farm will be one of three that will provide 33 per cent of Canberra’s electricity.
At the height of construction the project will employ about 165 workers and another 120 indirectly.
Once operating, the farm will employ about half a dozen workers.
The Ararat Wind Farm will produce enough electricity to power about 120,000 homes a year.
This is equivalent to six per cent of all households in Victoria.
Data collected by Ararat Rural City predicts an excess of $40 million will be spent in the community while construction of the wind farm is under way.
Construction of the wind farm started in September last year.
A sod turning was at the site in late November.
Energy and Resources Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Member for Wannon Dan Tehan attended the milestone event.
Work on the Ararat Wind Farm is due to finish by the end of 2017.
