Nexif Energy breaks ground on Lincoln Gap Wind Farm in South Australia

Wind industry news : Nexif Energy, an independent power producer has broken ground on its Lincoln Gap Wind Farm, a new 212MW Australian wind farm project being built near Port Augusta in South Australia with an investment of $450 million.

Nexif Energy Lincoln Gap Wind Farm

The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm project is coming up on a farmland on a raised plateau, near the Eyre Highway.

Expected to begin commercial operations in late 2018, the Australian wind farm project will be capable of powering about 155,000 households in South Australia while cutting down over 600,000 tonnes of CO2 that would have been otherwise released by a conventional power plant annually.

Wind power project. Image courtesy of kongsky at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Details of the New South Australian Wind Farm Project

The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm would feature 59×3.6MW wind turbines manufactured by Senvion, a German wind turbine manufacturer which holds the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract and also the maintenance agreement for the power plant.

The South Australian wind farm will also include a 10MW utility scale battery storage system. It will be designed to facilitate capacity expansion in the long run, in line with advancements in battery storage technologies.

The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm will feed its power into the Australian national power grid through a transmission network managed by Electranet.

Commenting on the start of Lincoln Gap Wind Farm construction, Zeki Akbas from Nexif Energy Australia said: “We’re delighted to be bringing this long-planned project to fruition.

“Nexif Energy are committed to building something which will make a significant contribution to the renewable energy target while helping grid stability and reliability in South Australia and we anticipate the wind farm will operate for 25+ years, providing green, clean energy for the state.

“Nexif Energy has worked meticulously to develop a highly productive, innovative and practical renewable power model which will bring about real and sustainable benefits to South Australian communities.”

Construction of the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm project, which had achieved a financial close for its first stage in November 2017, will feature about 110–130 people.

The first stage of the Australian wind farm project will see setting up of 36 wind turbines to generate 126MW of wind power. Clean Energy Finance Corporation had agreed to finance the construction of the first stage of Lincoln Gap Wind Farm for Nexif Energy with an amount of AUD 150 million ($115 million).

The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm is supported with power purchase agreements with Snowy Hydro and ERM Power.