Country Australia Owner EnergyAustralia Commission date 2010 | Status Operating Construction began 2008 | |
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Location Waterloo, South Australia Address 21 Milde Rd, Waterloo SA 5413, Australia | ||
Close up of a turning windmill at waterloo wind farm sou
Waterloo wind farm is based east of Mintaro, South Australia. It is the largest wind farm operated by EnergyAustralia.
Contents
Waterloo wind farm time lapse sequence
Site
The site is positioned on a rocky ridge on privately owned property at Waterloo. The 111 megawatt wind farm spreads across five acres of land and cost about $350 million, it began construction in November, 2008 and has been operational since October 2010.
For about two months in 2013, the site was monitored by the Environmental Protection Authority. The wind farm’s infrasound and low-frequency noise were both examined. Acoustics firm Resonate conducted noise and meteorological monitoring in the area.
Turbines
Waterloo wind farm has 37 Vestas V90-3MW turbines, each 80 metres high, with each turbine blade 44 metres long and weighing about 8 tonnes. The tower sections weigh approximately 90 tonnes in total with the tower and blades combined weighing 125 tonnes. On average the blades turn at 16.2 rpm. There are four levels in a turbine and it takes about five minutes to get to the top.
Each wind turbine produces on average 24 megawatt hours of power each day. On a windy day three wind turbines can power the whole of Clare and the whole wind farm can power up to 163,000 homes or 5 to 10% of South Australia.
The wind farm is planned to be upgraded with six new turbines.