GE to develop wind farm project in Australia

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General Electric will help develop a 450-million-Australian-dollar ($348-million) wind farm in Australia. The project also involves partners Renewable Energy Systems, Partners Group and OPTrust, who will participate in financing the project.

Wind turbines of GE will be used at the 240-megawatt Ararat wind farm in the state of Victoria, Bloomberg has reported. The wind farm is expected to be the third largest in Australia when completed.

With the recent passage of legislation to revise the renewable energy target of Australia, new investment to the tune of more than $14 billion Australian dollars is expected in large wind and solar projects in that country, according to an estimate provided by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

GE’s venture is the first contract since the policy resolution.

The government of Australian Capital Territory has signed a power purchase agreement under which it will evacuate about 40 percent of power generated by the wind farm.

Downer EDI has been chosen to build the project, according to the report.

GE has in recent times been developing systems that would improve the efficiency of wind power generation. Last month it announced the development of a system that promises savings for wind project developers both in planning and installation costs and time.

The Wind Collector Optimisation Service (WCOS) was claimed to hold the potential to save 20 percent of design cost and reduce design cycle times by 60 percent. The system has been developed by GE’s digital energy business.

WCOS helps utilities, developers and contractors to create better projections of grids and to find the optimal layout for a project, the company stated.

Earlier this month, GE also announced the beginning of trials of ecoROTR, an experimental wind turbine design, at Tehachapi on the edge of the Mojave Desert in California.

The ecoROTR has a silver aluminium dome fixed to the rotor which is expected to improve wind power generation efficiency of the turbines even in low potential areas.

Ajith Kumar S

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