1,000 MW Australian Wind Farm Approved in NSW

With approval now granted, construction will now begin on the largest wind farm in Australia, which will be located close to Broken Hill, New South Wales.  The wind power site – set to become one of the most significant in the world - will comprise of nearly 600 wind turbines spread over 32,000 hectares. 

Silverton Wind Farm

Known as Silverton Wind Farm, the facility’s capacity will exceed 1,000 Megawatts – sufficient electricity to power in excess of 400,000 homes.

The site will also have a significant impact on the environment, potentially lowering New South Wales’ yearly greenhouse gas emissions by about three-and-a-half million tonnes.

Broken Hill’s legacy lies in mining, meaning the addition of wind power brings with it the advent of a new, renewable energy age for the area.   

Benefits of Wind Power

More people live in New South Wales than in any other state in Australia.  Silverton Wind Farm project manager, Donna Bolton, highlighted how much the state’s population would feel the benefits of wind power. 

“It is a monster wind farm. It is fabulous in scale”, she stated.

“The entire thing will provide enough electricity for 4.5% of New South Wales' electrical needs and it is about 430,000 homes for the entire project.

She added: “Wind power for Australia is fantastic because it is going to be out of the cities, it is going to be where the jobs are needed, it is good for the environment, and it is good for the local economies.  It is a really significant part of the answer.”

Silverton Wind Farm is just one strand of a wider, Australian Government directive to roll out a whole network of similar wind power sites across NSW. 

In terms of greenhouse gas house emissions per capita, Australia ranks right up there with the worst in the world, predominantly due to its continued coal dependence.  The government, however, wants to move the country away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources, and is aiming to have ‘cleaner’ technologies supplying one-fifth of the nation’s electricity requirements by 2020. 

According to information detailed on Silverton Wind Farm’s website, this site alone will have the capacity to generate around one-tenth of this 2020 target.

The government is also focusing on solar power and, as Enviro-News recently reported, unveiled plans earlier this year to construct the largest photovoltaic site in the world