Turbines at a new $77 million wind farm in western Victorian are turning.
The state’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio officially opened the Kiata wind farm today.
“We’re supporting the renewables sector to create local jobs and deliver affordable, clean, green energy,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
“We’ve backed the Kiata wind farm every step of the way – because we’re making Victoria the national leader in renewable energy to drive down energy prices, create jobs and reduce emissions.”
The project supported 100 construction jobs and three ongoing jobs in the region.
The Kiata wind farm’s nine towers were made by Australia’s largest wind tower manufacturer Keppel Prince, and transformers for the project were supplied by Wilson Transformer Company.
The project is one of four large-scale, renewable energy generators for Victoria — the others being the 132MW Mount Gellibrand wind farms and the 100MW Bannerton Solar Park and 38MW Numurkah Solar Farm.
The Renewable Certificate Purchasing Initiative supports the state government’s renewable energy and climate change targets by bringing around 300MW of new renewable energy generation into the grid.
Victoria’s Renewable Energy Target (VRET) of 25 per cent renewable energy production by 2020 and 40 per cent by 2025 will see an estimated $9 billion of investment and around 11,000 jobs created over the life of the scheme.