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Xinjiang Goldwind to own and develop largest wind farm in Australia
Goldwind will have an ongoing role over the 25-year life of the project under an operations and maintenance agreement on the turbines. The wind farm will start operating in 2019, and will be the largest wind farm in Australia.
Michael Marray 17 May 2017

Xinjiang Goldwind (Goldwind) has agreed to purchase the Stockyard Hill Wind Farm project in Victoria, Australia from Sydney-based Origin Energy. The price is US$81.4 million.

Origin Energy has also agreed to purchase all the energy and renewable energy certificates produced by the project until 2030 under a power purchase agreement. This is the largest wind farm power purchase agreement yet signed in Australia.

The 530MW wind farm will have 149 Goldwind 3s smart turbines. Goldwind Australia will arrange project funding and will deliver the project under an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract. Goldwind will have an ongoing role over the 25-year life of the project under an operations and maintenance agreement on the turbines. The wind farm will start operating in 2019, and will be the largest wind farm in Australia.

The wind farm is located in western Victoria, approximately 140km west of Melbourne. It has an excellent wind resource, a strong grid connection and suitable access to ports and road infrastructure required for construction.

Goldwind has established itself in Australia as the turbine and maintenance supplier to a number of established wind farms including White Rock. Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co is one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbines in the world. It is the largest supplier of turbines in the Asia-Pacific, having installed 6.4GW of wind turbine capacity in the region in 2016 and cumulatively over 38GW globally.

Goldwind is also involved in combined solar and wind projects. Developing wind and solar projects in close proximity offers numerous benefits, such as shared infrastructure including grid connections and internal cabling, as well as lower environmental impacts and project costs.

On May 10 Goldwind announced that the White Rock Solar Farm in northern New South Wales, Australia, has reached financial close.

The 20MW White Rock Solar Farm power plant will be located next to the northern end of White Rock Wind Farm. The project is a solar-wind hybrid system that is expected to generate around 44,000 MWh of electricity in its first year of operation.

The project entails an investment of A$45 million (US$33 million), with A$6 million coming from the award of a large-scale solar competitive grant by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Construction is planned to start in July 2017, with a completion date set for January 2018. The main engineering, procurement and construction contract has been awarded to UGL, a member of the CIMIC Group (formerly Leighton Holdings).

White Rock Solar Farm is one of twelve projects to be awarded a grant from the ARENA large-scale solar competitive funding round. ARENA had been a driving force in bringing down costs and accelerating the commerciality of large-scale solar in Australia.

The sale of Stockyard Hill Wind Farm is subject to the satisfaction of certain regulatory conditions. The agreement will also be subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions, including Goldwind achieving close on the project’s financing. KPMG acted as commercial, financial and tax adviser to Goldwind for the acquisition.

Goldwind is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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