Union Fenosa's $1.2 Billion Investment to Double Australia's Wind Energy

Union Fenosa SA (Madrid, Spain) will invest $1.2 billion in seven wind farms in Australia. The company signed an agreement with TME Australia (Chatswood, Australia) in July 2008 to acquire an 80 percent stake in TME's wind power projects portfolio in the country. According to Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX), a new company, Union Fenosa Wind Australia (Chatswood, Australia), was formed to manage this business locally.

The windfarms will be located in the states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. Of the $1.2 billion investment, $998.4 million will be utilized in Victoria and the rest in NSW. The wind power project will be completed in two phases. The first phase, scheduled to be operational in 2010, will consist of windfarms in Hawkesdale and Ryan Corner in Victoria and Crookwell in NSW. The second phase, which is likely to be completed in 2013, will consist of farms in Darlington, Tarron and Berrybank in Victoria and Paling Yards in NSW. The Hawkesdale installation will consist of 31 turbines with a generation capacity of 62 megawatts (MW). In Crookwell, 46 turbines generating that will generate 92 MW of wind power will be installed. The Ryan Corner project will have capacity of 136 MW with 68 turbines. The other projects are in the proposal or approval stage. The wind power generated by the first phase of this project will be supplied to 186,000 homes in Australia. The windfarms are expected to create new jobs, especially in the rural areas of the country. The project will provide 225 jobs in construction and 40 jobs in operations.

Strong, steady and reliable winds make Australia an ideal location for windfarms. Australia currently has 42 windfarms with 563 turbines generating 824 MW. Union Fenosa's wind farms project is expected to add 850 MW of wind power. The Australian government has set a target to increase the share of renewable energy in the country's power supply to 20 percent by 2020. To achieve this, the wind power generation capacity will have to increase by 10,000-15,000 MW. An addition of 5,000 MW of capacity is proposed in Victoria and South Australia, while the rest will be commissioned in Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales. Australia has been focusing on developing its wind energy potential. Projects with generation capacity of more than 400 MW received approvals in 2007, and nine projects with a combined installed capacity of over 800 MW were commissioned in 2007. There are 6,785 MW of projects in the proposal stage: 1,986 MW in South Australia, 1,193 MW in NSW and 2,632 MW in Victoria, with the remainder in Tasmania. Australia's largest windfarms, the 192-MW Waubra windfarm and the 195-MW Portland farm, are expected to be operational by 2009. Both these farms are in the state of Victoria.

Australia is one of the top greenhouse-gas-emitting countries in the world, with carbon dioxide concentration level of 550 parts per million in the atmosphere. This is attributed to the country's high dependence on coal for electricity generation. The Union Fenosa project is seen as a step to boost Australia's effort to develop renewable and environmentally sustainable energy sources.

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