The largest wind farm in New South Wales is expected to start construction at the end of this year after the financial close. The Rye Park Wind Farm (RPWF) is expected to produce 396 MW of electricity from its 66 wind turbines.

Although construction will begin later this year, the RPWF is not expected to be fully operational until 2024. Owned by Tilt Renewables, which itself was acquired by leading clean energy supplier Powering Australian Renewables earlier this year, the RPWF will be the largest wind turbine in operation. farm in New South Wales generating the equivalent of enough electricity for 215,000 homes per year.

Located near Yassin in the southern highlands of the state, the RPWF will offset 960,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road.

If operational today, the 396 MW RPWF would be the second largest wind farm project in Australia, overtaking the Sapphire wind farm also located in New South Wales. The country’s largest wind farm is located in Macarthur, Victoria and has been fully operational since 2013.

New South Wales currently has 28 large-scale renewable energy projects should start construction soon, totaling 3383MW of power. Australia as a whole has over 100 such projects in the pipeline, having reached financial close as construction nears. The projects will bring 10183MW of renewable energy production capacity to the country.

Where will wind power be used?

55% of the wind farm’s production was covered by a 15-year contract with Newcrest Mining Limited to supply its Cadia gold mine. The remainder of the clean energy produced can be used to help NSW replace energy production that will be lost by the closure of the Lidell power plant by 2023.

The project will significantly boost the production of renewable energy in Australia, significantly increasing the production of wind power. 2020 saw wind energy counts for 35.9% of all renewable energy used in the country, and just under 10% of total electricity production.

Offshore wind farms may soon be heading to Australia, with legislation presented to Parliament on Thursday that would allow the 2.2 GW Star of the South wind project to continue. The project would be Australia’s first offshore wind farm, with the potential to supply 20% of Victoria’s total electricity on its own.

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