OVER 400 new full-time jobs will be supported in the Horsham region in the next two years, as stage two of the Murra Warra wind farm is built.
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On Monday, the consortium comprising RES and Macquarie's Green Investment Group announced the completion of the development phase of the second stage of the Murra Warra Wind Farm near Horsham in Western Victoria, and the sale of its interests to global private markets investment manager Partners Group.
Construction will begin imminently.
In a statement, the groups said a financial close had been achieved, meaning money had been secured for the project. They said the new farm would feature 38 wind turbines with a capacity of 209MW.
"The sale of Murra Warra II builds on the consortium's success in the development, financing and construction of the adjacent 61 turbine first stage of Murra Warra Wind Farm," they said.
"Murra Warra II will avoid emissions of an estimated 468 kilotonnes of CO2 each year, generating enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 150,000 Victorian homes."
A spokeswoman said it was expected there would be eight ongoing maintenance jobs at the new farm once construction was completed, given the first stage of the project had created that many.
A locally managed community fund for both projects will inject an additional $4m of investment into local projects over the lifetime of the wind farms.
Regional Development Australia Grampians chairperson Stuart Benjamin welcomed the news, saying energy would be crucial in Western Victoria's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
"The pandemic has shown us how brittle our economy can be, and one of the exciting opportunities with renewable energy and this large-scale investment is to potential for us to redesign the economy right across the Grampians," he said.
"We are now getting to a point where we are generating more energy than we consume. At the moment we are exporting that to service the national grid, which is part of our role, but the opportunity is to actually use some of it locally."
Mr Benjamin said value-adding on agriculture was a way in which this could happen. He said RDA Grampians was working with the Wimmera Development Association on several projects in this space.
"We think we can use that reliable renewable power to generate new jobs (by attracting new industries). There are a lot of industries that will continue to be energy-hungry, and they need to convert to more renewable energy sources," he said.
Mr Benjamin is also the chair of the Grampians New Energy Taskforce, which advocates for new energy projects in the region. He said the group had supported the Western Victorian Transmission Network Project.
The project, which will see 190 kilometres of transmission line constructed from Bulgana, north of Ararat, to outer Melbourne, is facing opposition from farmers east of the region.
"The proponents, which are AusNet and Mondo, have now got to finalise the location of that project, but it is absolutely critical in our ability to value-add to renewable energy, to create jobs that last decades in our region," he said.
"Without the ability to export the power, it can't go into the national grid. Murra Warra needs the stability of having extra transmission line capacity."
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