Category: News 2013

Gullen Range Wind Farm

17 December 2013

The milestone was celebrated on-site with representatives from Goldwind, contractors, local authorities and landowners:

•  The project is connected to the Transgrid 330kV transmission network. The connection was
  energised ahead of schedule in October 2013
• Renewable energy production is contracted under a Power Purchase Agreement with Energy
  Australia
• CATCON and Consolidated Power Projects are providing civil and electrical infrastructure for the
  project and Deugro are managing the logistics of delivering equipment to site; and
• Several local contractors have made significant contributions to the project including Divalls, APE
  and Tutt Bryant Hire.

At the peak 115 people worked at the project site with 70% of the team coming from the local region.

When completed the wind farm will include 73 Goldwind advanced wind turbines utilising permanent magnet direct drive technology. The wind farm will incorporate 56 large GW100/2.5MW and 17 smaller GW82/1.5MW wind turbines. Seven 2.5MW and one 1.5MW wind turbines have now commenced producing renewable energy into the National Electricity Market. Once the project is fully operational it will be the largest wind farm in NSW.

John Titchen, Managing Director of Goldwind Australia, was there to celebrate the milestone and said “This is an exciting milestone for the project and is the culmination of the hard work of the project team and the local, national and international contractors involved.

“The commencement of generation from the project follows several years of planning and project management. The project has now started to contribute to meeting the Australian Government’s renewable energy target, delivering renewable energy into the Australian Electricity Market.”

Project Update
To date 31 of the 73 wind turbines have been installed, with installation commencing from the
northern section of the site. Wind turbines are continuing to arrive on site in the southern section of
the wind farm in advance of them being installed early next year. It is expected that all the wind
turbines will be fully installed by May 2014.

The commissioning phase has now started and will progress at ahead of the planned
commencement of full operation in mid-2014. The wind turbines will be thoroughly tested prior to
being put into full operation. Goldwind’s local team of wind turbine technicians will operate and
maintain the wind farm.

Gullen Range Wind Farm

12 August 2013

Anyone wondering about the benefits to the region of renewables should just follow the steady stream of trucks and utes from Goulburn to Grabben Gullen. Machinery, concrete, sand, gravel as well as labour, services and equipment hire are all being supplied by local companies to the Gullen Range wind farm – even the socks are coming from Lindner at Crookwell.

According to Goldwind’s Project Manager Mr Ben Bateman at least 70 per cent of workers on the wind farm are locals with $12.3m already being spent on goods and services in the local region and $5m spent on the local roads. Goulburn earthmoving company Tutt Bryant is one of the companies supplying plant and machinery including loaders, excavators, rollers, tractors and graders to assist with road works, cabling, and to help with oversized loads.

Mr Ben Zyla the local manager of Tutt Bryant said they have engaged the services of a dozen or so subcontractor companies to supply the needs of the site and employed 4 additional staff to supply the workload.

“Most of the local earthmoving businesses involved will have delivered over $2milion of works to the project. This is a major boost to the local economy as there are very limited large projects on at the moment. The Southern Tablelands has long been identified as a major wind resource area. It is quite ridiculous for us not to take advantage of this and turn natural energy into clean power generation. Rural towns are struggling with limited development. The area’s mainstay, agriculture, is on a gradual decline so we need to be making better use of the land. I know of a shearer who has left the industry after many years and has been re-trained to do maintenance on wind turbines and has never been happier. The impact of wind farms on agriculture and communities is very little compared with the benefits. Sure the construction stage does impact on locals with major road movements of equipment to site, but in the process, we keep work local and the developers contribute major funding to upgrade the roads after completion.”
In addition to the locals working on the wind farm Justin said he is blown away by the number of people the wind farm has brought to the region to live and work on the project during construction. “I couldn’t believe the numbers of blokes from out of town in the supermarket queue in Goulburn the other day who I know are working on the wind farm.”

Tutt Bryant is joined by Divalls, APE Earthmoving, Designcrete, Concrete 4 Goulburn, fencing contractors, pubs, motels, and cafes all benefiting from the wind farm construction phase.

In addition to all the regional benefits the wind farm will power approximately 60,000 homes when it becomes operational in 2014 while continuing with its other agricultural and farming activities.

Wind farm making the most of local workforce
Locals are getting the lion’s share of the jobs on the construction phase of the Gullen Range wind farm.

Goldwind Australia’s project manager Ben Bateman said wherever possible we have tapped into the region’s skilled and unskilled local work force.

“Seventy per cent of our team constructing the Gullen Range wind farm comes from the local area. We’ve got local crane operators, truck drivers, electricians, labourers and others. It’s a great atmosphere on site. A lot of these blokes know each other from around the traps.”
Mr Jock Shutzendorff, who lives just out of Goulburn, is one local who was saw the opportunity and went knocking on Goldwind’s door. “I spent 15 years operating heavy machinery but now I am the Quality and Logistics Coordinator for the Gullen Range wind farm. It’s been a big learning curve and I’m learning something new most days. A typical day for me includes taking delivery of parts of the wind turbines, inventory and some computer work. We’ve got a wide range of jobs, from managers, engineers, office staff, OH&S, electricians, and other subcontractors such as fitters, crane drivers, riggers and earthmoving.”

Crookwell crane operator Mr Adrian Baty is another local who saw the opportunity to get involved in the project. “Working on the wind farm has given me a steady income and a chance to get more experience of this growing industry so I can get more work later,” he said. Mr Shutzendorff agrees: “There are a lot of wind farms in the region, it is a windy place. Wind farms are a good source of employment.”

Mr Bateman said the wind farm will take around a year to complete the construction phase which is giving jobs to locals in their own community and injecting cash back to the region. The project also includes $5m in upgrades to local roads.

Gullen Range Wind Farm

27 June 2013

Goldwind today announced the financial close on its largest overseas wind project – the 165.5MW Gullen Range Wind Farm.

The financing facility was closed and the first drawdown has been completed. The transaction includes a project financing facility of $250m AUD. The National Australia Bank (NAB) acted as Financial Advisor and also led the financing as Mandated Debt
Arranger and Bookrunner. The five year construction and term facility is financed by the Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and NAB.

The Gullen Range Wind Farm is located in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales (NSW). Construction of the project commenced in October 2012 and has been funded to date by project owner Goldwind.

“Achieving Financial Close on Gullen Range Wind Farm demonstrates that Goldwind has the products and capability to meet the requirements of non-recourse project finance. This is important to Goldwind as project finance is frequently utilised to fund Australian wind farms. This major milestone has been achieved after significant effort by the Goldwind team, the bank group including National Australia Bank as the lead bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank,
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and with the support of key advisors.” said John Titchen, Managing Director of Goldwind Australia.

The substantial Gullen Range Wind Farm investment is viable on the basis of the Australian Government’s Large Scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). This essential policy is a successful measure for stimulating investment in substantial wind farm projects in Australia. Energy Australia has secured the production from the project through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). This PPA is
one of the key project agreements which have facilitated the wind farm development.

EnergyAustralia’s Group Executive Manager of Energy Markets, Mark Collette, said “the new PPA with Goldwind Australia was further evidence of EnergyAustralia’s intention to pursue investment in renewable energy in order to meet the company’s obligations under the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Targe.”

Goldwind Australia is the EPC contractor for the project and will provide ongoing operation and maintenance services. The wind farm will be connected to the Transgrid 330kV transmission system, a connection agreement was announced in July 2012. The connection works are well advanced and are due to be completed in the 4th quarter of 2013.

On the 22nd May 2013, Gullen Range Wind Farm also reached a major construction milestone, with the erection of its first 2.5MW Permanent Magnet Direct Drive (PMDD) wind turbine at site. The first six 2.5MW wind turbines have now been installed.

The project is on schedule with a total of 56 2.5MW wind turbines and 17 1.5MW wind turbines to be erected at the site before the end of 2013. The 165.5MW Gullen Range Wind Farm is Goldwind’s second wind farm in Australia following the successful 19.5MW Mortons Lane Wind Farm which was completed at the end of 2012 and is now owned by CGN Wind Energy.

Catcon and CPP are contracted to construct the civil and electrical works at Gullen Range Wind Farm. These site works are now at an advanced stage with more than half the site roads established and foundations poured. Deugro has been contracted to manage the delivery of wind turbine components to the site. These deliveries commenced on the 6th May 2013 and are planned to continue for 28 weeks.

The site work force totals approximately 112 people at present with significant local economic benefit to the local economy. Substantial council road upgrades have been undertaken to facilitate delivery of equipment to site.