Collgar Wind Farm is a wind farm located approximately 25 kilometres south-east of Merredin, Western Australia.[1] It is operated by Collgar Renewables. With 111 Vestas V90-2.0MW wind turbines,[2][3] and a total installed capacity of 222 MW registered with AEMO,[4] it is Western Australia's largest wind farm. It became fully operational in October 2011[5] and is expected to generate 750 GWh per year on average over the 30-year life of the project.[1]

Collgar Wind Farm
Collgar Wind Farm in 2019
Map
Collgar Wind Farm in Australia
CountryAustralia
LocationNear Merredin
Coordinates31°32′35″S 118°27′16″E / 31.5430556°S 118.4545833°E / -31.5430556; 118.4545833
StatusOperational
Construction beganJune 2010
Commission dateMarch 2012 (2012-03)
Construction costA$750m
OwnerRetail Employees Superannuation Trust
Wind farm
TypeOnshore
Hub height80 metres (262 ft)
Rotor diameter90 metres (295 ft)
Site area18,000 hectares (180.00 km2)
Power generation
Units operational111 × 2.0 MW
Make and modelVestas V90-2MW
Nameplate capacity222 MW
Capacity factor34.24% (average 2012-2020)
Annual net output665.8 GWh (average 2012-2020)
External links
Website[www.collgarwindfarm.com.au]

History

edit

Feasibility studies were carried out between 2006 and 2008, and planning approval was granted in September 2008. In March 2010, Collgar Wind Farm Pty Ltd was sold to UBS International Infrastructure Fund and Retail Employees Superannuation Trust and in June 2019, Retail Employees Superannuation Trust became the sole shareholder.[6]

Construction began in June 2010, the wind farm was connected to the grid in April 2011,[1] and the first 50 turbines started operation in May 2011.[3][7] The wind farm became fully operational in October 2011.[5]

While Collgar's wind turbines were initially de-rated to 1.856 MW, limiting output to 206 MW, they were returned to their design capacity of 2.0 MW during March and April 2020, increasing output to the current 222 MW.[5]

Operations

edit

AEMO records begin in June 2011 for the wind farm. The generation table uses AEMO Facility SCADA to obtain generation values for each month. Collgar's code is INVESTEC_COLLGAR_WF1, so that is used as part of a SUMIF operation (shown below) on the table to get the total. Note that each month's values start 8 hours into the respective month and extend 8 hours into the next month.

=SUMIF(E2:E Last Row,"*INVESTEC_COLLGAR_WF1*",F2:F Last Row)
Collgar Wind Farm Generation (MWh)
Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2011 287,225 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 14,614* 26,360* 31,306* 46,699* 53,002* 58,121 57,123
2012 640,200 66,373 56,733 67,198 50,610 47,758 53,930 13,487* 44,554 61,583 68,524 56,789 52,661
2013 647,963 67,685 57,569 52,933 33,712 45,245 37,273 47,667 56,082 61,154 53,857 72,971 61,815
2014 679,954 71,733 65,506 62,400 40,677 38,987 51,386 54,859 53,317 57,979 55,815 58,518 68,777
2015 681,676 76,184 48,963 49,333 62,347 53,540 55,564 47,088 52,165 55,576 56,859 55,722 68,335
2016 671,039 62,672 65,039 68,050 50,132 33,708 41,450 58,669 54,861 49,771 65,709 53,228 67,750
2017 659,380 60,082 63,272 61,459 44,549 41,218 43,654 59,908 57,077 43,134 62,263 62,389 60,375
2018 679,894 76,105 56,132 66,050 42,218 63,290 37,984 66,252 58,378 46,871 56,306 53,382 56,926
2019 660,021 63,699 56,889 58,262 58,831 44,249 62,698 44,437 55,378 48,264 54,667 58,579 54,068
2020 672,377 61,484 69,644 55,677 42,007 54,245 55,691 55,141 56,439 46,360 58,293 51,588 65,808

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

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Quinn, Russell: WA's biggest wind farm is now online Archived 18 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Perth Now, 15 April 2011
  2. ^ Collgar Wind Farm: Site location and layout, retrieved 12 May 2011
  3. ^ a b Merredin Mercury: First power generated, 11 May 2011
  4. ^ Collgar Fact Sheet, retrieved 30 August 2022
  5. ^ a b c Collgar Wind Farm: About, retrieved 30 August 2022
  6. ^ Rest takes control of Collgar Wind Farm, retrieved 30 August 2022
  7. ^ Giant WA wind farm spins up a storm in the Australian Financial Review, 12 May 2011
edit