The Yandin Wind Farm is a 214MW wind farm developed by a joint venture between electricity generation companies Alinta Energy and RATCH-Australia in the Shire of Dandaragan, Western Australia.
Inaugurated in May 2021, the wind farm generates affordable clean energy for the state. The project was built with an investment of nearly A$546m ($400m) and created roughly 150 jobs during the peak construction period.
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The wind farm is expected to generate enough clean energy to power approximately 200,000 homes a year.
Location of Yandin Wind Farm
The Yandin Wind Farm is located approximately 3.3km south of the township of Dandaragan, within the Shire of Dandaragan and 175km north of Perth.
The location provides favourable conditions with one of the strongest and most consistent winds across Australia.
Yandin Wind Farm make-up
The site covers an area of 15,000ha, of which only 0.03% is occupied by wind turbines. The remaining land can be used for farming or other land uses by the landowners. The wind farm is powered by 51 Vestas wind turbines, each with an electricity generating capacity of 4.2MW.
The turbines are some of the biggest ever installed in the country. Each turbine has a hub height of 105m, blade length of 73.7m, rotor diameter of 150m and swept area of 17,671m². The minimum wind speed at which the turbine can operate is 3m/s, while the maximum cut-off speed is 22m/s.
The wind farm is expected to have a long-term capacity factor of approximately 50%.
Transmission details
The electricity from the project is transmitted through a new, 10km-long transmission line to the 330kV electricity South West Interconnected System network. The transmission line and terminal station are built, owned and operated by Western Power, a Western Australian Government-owned electricity distributor.
From the network, the power from the wind farm is distributed to homes and businesses across the state.
Timeline of the wind project
The Yandin Wind Farm was originally developed by Wind Prospect, a renewable energy project developer, in 2011. The company submitted a proposal for the development of two separate wind farms, with up to 151 turbines along with the associated infrastructure, within the Shire of Dandaragan.
The two wind farms were the Waddi Wind Farm, with 57 turbines, and the Yandin Wind Farm, with 94 turbines. The proposal secured approval in early-2012, and in April 2015, the Shire extended the planning permit until January 2020.
In 2017, Alinta Energy acquired the Yandin Wind Farm project from Wind Prospect. An application to amend the planning permit was submitted to the Shire in the same year. The amendment proposed changes to increase the maximum tip height of the turbines from 152m to 180m as well as the maximum hub height from 100m to 112m to maximise energy generation. The changes to the original proposal were approved by the Shire of Dandaragan in January 2018.
RATCH-Australia signed an agreement to acquire a 70% stake in the wind project in July 2019. The construction of the project began in August 2019 and took 22 months to complete.
The wind farm is supported by a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility services provider Alinta Sales, a subsidiary of Alinta Energy.
Contractors involved
Alinta appointed Danish wind turbine-maker Vestas as the turbine supplier and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner for the wind project in February 2019.
Vestas supplied its V150-4.2MW turbines, designed for maximum performance. The company is also responsible for maximising the uptime and ensuring optimised performance for the project under a 25-year Active Output Management 4000 (AOM 4000) service agreement. The scope of the service agreement also includes the maintenance of the wind turbines, as well as civil and electrical balance of the plant. Vestas operates and maintains the wind farm.
Decmil Group secured a contract worth approximately A$79m ($57.8m) for the electrical and civil balance of plant works at the wind farm in April 2019. The contractual scope included design and construction of the balance of the plant including cabling, wind turbine bases, access tracks, switch room and substation.
