The project was originated by local farmers and South Australian developers and will involve 36 local landowners hosting 199 turbines over a large land area of around 18,000 hectares.
The project will feature a unique electrical connection straight to Adelaide via two 74 km underground and undersea cables. The connection uses state of the art HVDC technology, widely used in Europe, which provides an invisible “÷network friendly’ connection to the South Australia power grid in Adelaide.
The connection system will comprise approximately 60 km of marine cable and 14 km of terrestrial cable. Two HVDC cables of 300 MW capacity each will be laid next to each other on the seabed between Port Julia and St Kilda at a suitable depth.
REpower Head of Development Peter Sgardelis told Trenchless Australasia approximately 1 km of pipe on either side of Port Vincent will be directionally drilled, with the remaining pipe to be laid by cable ship, supplied by Swedish company ABB.
Speaking on lodging the development application, Mr Sgardelis said “This represents a major milestone for the project and a culmination of over a year’s work with our expert consultants PB Consulting and a variety of specialist sub-consultants. This has resulted in one of the most comprehensive development applications for a wind farm anywhere in Australia.”
Mr Sgardelis said project approval is anticipated at the end of 2013, at which point sub-contracts for trenchless works would be released.