State Minister for Energy and Mining opens new ENGIE wind farm to help power South Australia

The wind farm was officially opened by The Hon Dan van Holst Pellekaan, State Minister for Energy and Mining and ENGIE Asia Pacific President and CEO, Paul Maguire. They were joined at the launch by the Mayor of the Regional Council of Goyder and representatives of Mitsui & Co, ENGIE’s joint venture partner on the project.

Consisting of 32 turbines and currently the fourth largest wind farm in South Australia, the opening of Willogoleche is the latest major milestone in the state’s renewable energy transition. Willogoleche is the first onshore wind farm in the world to install and commission GE’s 3.8MW turbines at scale, and its 130m rotor blades can operate through a range of wind speeds, allowing ENGIE to maximise the capacity of each turbine.

Power from the site will be delivered via ENGIE’s retail arm, Simply Energy, which has more than 700,000 customers in Australia, including nearly 90,000 in South Australia.

The wind farm represents a $250 million investment by ENGIE and follows a $75 million upgrade to its 500MW Pelican Point Power Station, one of the most environmentally friendly of its type in Australia. In total ENGIE has more than 800MW of wind-firming capacity available in South Australia making a critical contribution to the state’s energy security and stability.

Commenting on the opening of Willogoleche, Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said: “The Willogoleche Wind Farm adds another significant renewable energy resource to South Australia’s impressive portfolio of wind and solar generation. “Willogoleche’s 119MW capacity will put downward pressure on prices by increasing competition in the South Australia’s energy market.“

The addition of further wind power adds momentum to the case for associated grid-scale storage and an interconnector between SA and NSW to enable the export of South Australia’s abundant renewable energy to the eastern seaboard.”

ENGIE Asia Pacific President and CEO Paul Maguire added: “Willogoleche is the latest demonstration of ENGIE’s long-term commitment to South Australia. This investment significantly increases our local generation capacity to deliver more renewable energy to our growing customer base in the state.

“This opening marks another milestone in our continuing transition across the Asia-Pacific region toward low-carbon energy production and the pursuit of growth opportunities through providing energy efficient and multi-technical solutions to customers.”

In addition to Willogoleche, ENGIE operates the 46MW Canunda Wind Farm in South Australia and has renewable energy projects under development in Queensland and New South Wales.

About ENGIE ANZ

In Australia, the company has about 1,200MW of low-carbon generation capacity and more than 800MW of renewable energy under development. Our retail brand, Simply Energy, has more than 700,000 customer accounts in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. ENGIE Services employs more than 1,200 people and offers innovative multi-technical design, installation and maintenance solutions for businesses and precincts across Australia and New Zealand.