Warradarge Wind Farm

Construction of the 180MW Warradarge Wind Farm, near Eneabba in Western Australia, was completed toward the end of 2020.

The Warradarge Wind Farm has a total output of 180 megawatts with a capacity factor of nearly 50 per cent – the equivalent of the average annual electricity needs of 144,000 West Australian homes.

The 51 turbines of the Warradarge Wind Farm have been supplied and constructed by global wind energy company Vestas, who engaged local company Decmil for the civil construction and balance of the plant works.

The turbines are among the largest in Western Australia with a tip height of 152 metres and 67 metres blades. 51 foundations each with 480m³ of concrete were poured from the on-site batch plant. Construction of the facility also included 55km of new gravel roads around the 3,800ha site and 117km of underground 33kV electrical cabling has been laid by the construction workforce that averaged around 125 people during construction.

Vestas has also been appointed as Operations and Maintenance contractor for plant operations. Vestas uses a pool workforce, including apprentices, to maintain 3 different wind farms in the area, with an average of 6 local technicians utilised at Warradarge for most of the time. In addition, Synergy Renewable Energy Developments Pty Ltd (SynergyRED) provides asset management services to the facility on behalf of Bright Energy Investments.

A 10km transmission line from the wind farm sub-station to the existing 330 kilovolt transmission line near Eneabba on the South West Interconnected System (“SWIS”) has been constructed by Western Power and includes a new terminal station at Eneabba.

The site of the Warradarge Wind Farm is recognised as one of the best in the country and combined with the ‘state of the art’ turbine technology and its proximity to the 330kV transmission line heading into the northern section of the SWIS, the project is contributing significantly to State’s renewable energy generation future.

Warradarge Wind Farm joins the BEI portfolio, which includes the Albany Grasmere Wind Farm that powers much of Albany City and the Greenough River Solar Farm just south of Geraldton.