Badgingarra Wind Farm facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Badgingarra Wind Farm |
|
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Location | Hill River, WA |
| Coordinates | 30°24′36″S 115°19′12″E / 30.41000°S 115.32000°E |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | November 2017 |
| Commission date | 2 May 2019 |
| Construction cost | A$315m |
| Owner(s) | APA Group |
The Badgingarra Wind Farm is a large wind farm located in Western Australia. It's found in a place called Hill River, which is northwest of the town of Badgingarra. This spot is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Perth.
This wind farm is owned by a company called APA Group. It's built right next to another older wind farm, the Emu Downs Wind Farm, which is also owned by the same company.
Contents
What is the Badgingarra Wind Farm?
A wind farm is a place where many large wind turbines are set up to capture the wind's energy. They turn this energy into electricity. The Badgingarra Wind Farm helps to create clean, renewable energy for homes and businesses in Western Australia.
Building the Wind Farm
Work on the Badgingarra Wind Farm started in November 2017. It was finished and ready to go in early 2019. The whole project cost about A$315 million to build.
The wind farm has 37 huge wind turbines. Each one was made by a company called Siemens. Each turbine can make 3.6 megawatts (MW) of electricity. To give you an idea of their size, the center part of the turbine (called the hub) is 85 meters (279 feet) above the ground. The very tip of the spinning blades can reach up to 150 meters (492 feet) high!
Right next to the wind farm, the APA Group is also building the Badgingarra Solar Farm. This will be a solar power plant that can produce 17.5 MW of electricity from the sun. This means even more clean energy for the region.
Powering Homes with Wind
The Badgingarra Wind Farm was officially opened on May 2, 2019. Bill Johnston, who was the Energy Minister for Western Australia at the time, was there for the opening.
The electricity made by the wind farm is sent into the main power grid. This grid is managed by Western Power. The energy from Badgingarra helps power homes and businesses in the North Country region.
A company called Alinta Energy has an agreement to buy all the electricity from this wind farm until the end of 2035. The wind farm is expected to generate a huge amount of energy each year. It's predicted to make between 500 and 550 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy annually. To understand how much that is, one GWh can power thousands of homes for a year!
How Much Energy Does It Make?
The Badgingarra Wind Farm started recording its energy production in January 2019. We can see how much electricity it has generated since then.
In 2019, the wind farm produced a total of 524,712 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity. In 2020, it generated 504,247 MWh. These numbers show that the wind farm is a very important source of clean energy for Western Australia.
