AGL Energy Limited (AGL) has reaffirmed its commitment to continuing development activities for the Silverton Wind Farm during a local Community Consultative Committee meeting.
AGL’s new Silverton Wind Farm project manager Adam Mackett said further project development activities, such as hydrogeological work, would begin within the next few weeks.
“AGL is looking to develop more large-scale renewables as shown by our recent launch of the Powering Australian Renewables Fund (PARF). The Fund is an innovative financing vehicle that we are establishing to help facilitate the development of new, large-scale renewable generation projects. We also hope it will assist us in getting the Silverton Wind Farm project over the line,” Mr Mackett said.
The PARF aims to attract up to $3 billion from institutional investors to support 1000MW of renewable generation, which represents about 20 percent of the Renewable Energy Target (RET).
“The political and economic environment has changed dramatically in recent times, especially around climate change. The agreement by nations in Paris at COP21 to continue to work towards limiting climate change to two degrees celsius above pre-industrial times will require the development of many new renewable projects. With this in mind AGL has submitted an application for a project extension to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment as the current project approval is due to expire in May this year,” he said.
“There is still a long way to go, including continuing consultation with the local community and determining the final project’s scope. A decision on whether the project proceeds is also subject to further development work and financing arrangements.”
The Silverton Wind Farm is initially proposed to have a capacity of up to 200MW and will produce approximately 700,000MWh of renewable energy, powering more than 120,000 average Australian homes. The renewable energy produced will reduce CO2 emissions by 580,000 tonnes annually, which is the equivalent of taking 170,000 cars off the road each year.
