Alinta Energy to build West Australia's largest wind farm

Alinta Energy has today announced that it will build West Australia’s biggest wind farm by mid-2020 after appointing leading global wind company Vestas as its engineering, procurement and construction partner.

The 214 MW Yandin Wind Farm will comprise 51 (4.2 MW) turbines – which could power up to 200,000 homes per year – and will be located near the town of Dandaragan, around 175km north of Perth. The project is expected to cost approximately $400 million and will generate around 150 jobs during construction.

 Alinta Energy’s Executive Director of Merchant Energy Ken Woolley thanked everyone involved in helping the project to reach this major milestone.

“Yandin will give Alinta Energy a considerable supply of affordable renewable power for our growing electricity customer base.

“I want to thank our project landowners, the Shire of Dandaragan and Western Power for their support. 

“This is Alinta Energy’s first direct investment in a renewable project, and we’re thrilled to do it here in our home state of WA. 

“Yandin will drive more affordable and cleaner energy for us, and with our gas-fired power stations it will also help us use gas more efficiently. That’ll be good for us, our customers and the environment.

“The Yandin Wind Farm has been shaped by valuable input from the local community and made possible by a stable energy policy environment in WA,” said Mr Woolley.

Vestas’ Head of Sales for Australia and New Zealand, Peter Cowling, said the company was excited to partner with Alinta Energy.

“Yandin is a key project for Vestas, for Alinta and for Western Australia. 

“We are more than pleased to be Alinta’s partner on this project, as we can see enormous potential for wind energy in Western Australia that is perfectly suited to our industry-leading wind turbines,” he said. 

The high-quality wind resource in the region means the wind farm’s long-term capacity factor is projected to be around 50 per cent.

The wind farm will connect to Western Power’s 330 kV electricity network via a new 10 km transmission line and terminal station that will be built, owned and operated by Western Power. 

Vestas will operate and maintain the wind farm from completion of construction under a long-term service agreement.