Tasmania’s $280 million Granville Harbour wind farm, near Zeehan on the state’s west coast, has reached a new milestone with the successful construction of an 11km transmission line and switching station, in preparation of injecting 112MW of clean, zero emissions energy into the grid.
Minister for Energy, Guy Barnett, said this is another milestone in delivering the Tasmania First energy policy to make the state fully renewable, self-sufficient and have the lowest regulated power prices by 2022.
“The construction of Granville Harbour alone is supporting some 200 jobs, with six more to continue on an ongoing basis once operational,” Mr Barrett said.
“The development of new wind farms in Tasmania also represents another step in our Battery of the Nation pumped hydro plans, that will drive billions in investment and create thousands of jobs in Tasmania.”
Project Director, Lyndon Frearson, said completing the transmission line gives the development a physical connection to Tasmania’s energy network and brings the state closer to delivering a new source of renewable energy to households and businesses.
“We’re really pleased this important project has been completed by local contractors, TasNetworks, Zinfra and Gradco to a high standard,” Mr Frearson said.
When complete, the Granville Harbour Wind Farm will provide a significant new source of electricity – up to 360GWh of energy a year, enough to power for 46,000 homes.
The CEO of TasNetworks, Lance Balcombe, paid tribute to the TasNetworks project team, as well as Zinfra, who’s partnered with TasNetworks to design and construct the line and supporting infrastructure over the past year.
“TasNetworks’ vision is to be trusted by our customers to deliver today and create a better tomorrow. Helping bring up to 112MW of clean, renewable wind power into the Tasmanian network certainly fits that vision.”
The first wind turbine is expected to be fully installed at the end of November 2019.
