Construction has begun on Tilt Renewables’ massive Rye Park wind farm in New South Wales, the biggest wind project in the state to date, using what will be the biggest wind turbines in Australia.

Tilt announced on LinkedIn this month that construction had started on the 396MW project, near Yass in the NSW Southern Tablelands, which would feature 66 Vestas turbines rated at 6MW each. That beats the 5.6MW turbines which are being installed at Kaban in north Queensland.

“What a great way to round out the year!” the post said.

Tilt said the wind farm would create an estimated 250 direct jobs during the construction phase and up to 10 ongoing regional jobs during its operational life, with opportunities for local workers throughout.

In a newsletter update last week, the developer said its construction contractor Zenviron and its subcontractors were busy mobilising staff and equipment at the site, and had commenced construction of three site entry points.

Rye Park makes up part of Tilt’s Australian pipeline of projects and assets that attracted a $2.6 billion offer from PowAR, a joint venture between AGL, QIC and the Future Fund, that took ownership of Tilt in August.

It will be the largest operating wind farm in NSW when fully commissioned in 2024, and one of the five biggest in the country.

More than half of the production from the Rye Park wind project (55 per cent) has been contracted to mining company Newcrest Mining under a 15-year power purchase agreement that will supply the Cadia gold mine in NSW, and help Newcrest reduce its own corporate emissions.

The Rye Park project is expected to produce an average of 1,188GWh a year, equivalent to the annual electricity needs of about 215,000 homes, and will offset 960,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Zenviron and Lumea will work on the project construction and connections.

Source: RenewEconomy