August 17, 2019
Australia

Granville Harbour Wind Farm pours first turbine slab

Tarlia Jordan= AUGUST 17 2019 - examiner.com.au

The Granville Wind Farm is now set in stone, with the first concrete pour completed on Friday.

More than 100 truck loads of concrete were poured into the 20-metre diametre base.

First slab for wind farm takes 100 truck loads of concrete

The process took about 13 hours, and will be repeated for the remaining 30 slabs.

Granville Harbour Wind Farm project director Lyndon Frearson said the successful first foundation pour was a key achievement for the project.

“An enormous amount of preparatory work has been done to get the wind farm site to this point,” he said.

“We have started construction for 25km of access roads, built drainage and environmental controls, installed operations buildings and completed significant excavation works for our wind turbine foundations.”

Each excavated foundation is big enough to hold an entire MONA ferry.

The 200-strong construction crews have logged more than 350,000 work hours so far. Vesta wind turbine generators will be installed on towers that are nearly 140 metres-tall.

“Over the coming months we expect to see more visible signs of progress, with the delivery of wind turbine blades and towers to site starting in mid September, and the first wind turbines to be installed shortly afterwards,” Mr Frearson said.

He said the remote site had some unique challenges, but overall the construction was progressing well.

“This winter’s unrelenting weather conditions have slowed some activities down, but we are pushing on and are still on track for the wind farm to generate its first energy by the end of the year,” he said.

“We are extremely grateful for the support we’ve received from the local community and look forward to continuing to work closely with Council and local authorities throughout the project.”

About 90 per cent of the site’s transmission line poles have been installed, and the switchyard constructed.

An 85-tonne transformer has been delivered to the site to “step up” the clean energy generated ready to be fed into the electricity grid.

Granville Harbour Wind Farm is set to deliver a “significant” economic boost to the region with about $3.8 million direct investment in the West Coast and around $16 million investment across Tasmania.

The project will provide about 200 jobs during the construction period – including 125 jobs for Tasmanians – and around 10 permanent operational roles once the wind farm is complete.

Enough power will be generated for about 46,000 homes. The state government is aiming for Tasmania to become 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2022.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/08/17/granville-harbour-wind-farm-pours-first-turbine-slab/