Sapphire Wind Farm Explained

Sapphire Wind Farm
Coordinates:-29.7°N 151.41°W
Country:Australia
Location:Swan Vale, New South Wales
Status:Operational
Construction Began:January 2017
Commissioned:December 2017
Cost:A$590m
Operator:CWP Renewables
Wind Farm Type:Onshore
Wind Hub Height:137m (449feet)
Wind Rotor Diameter:126m (413feet)
Ps Site Area:8921ha
Ps Site Elevation:750mto1100mm (2,460feetto3,600feetm)
Ps Units Operational:75 × 3.6 MW
Ps Units Manu Model:Vestas V126
Ps Electrical Capacity:270 MW
Ps Electrical Cap Fac:33.50% (average 2019-2023)
Ps Annual Generation:744 GWh (average 2019-2023)
Website:https://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/

Sapphire Wind Farm is a 270 megawatt (MW) wind farm in the Australian state of New South Wales. When it was built in 2018, it was the largest wind farm in New South Wales. It is located in the New England region of northern New South Wales, 28 kilometres east of Inverell and 18 kilometres west of Glen Innes.[1] The farm covers approximately 8921 hectares of cleared grazing land, and has an elevation of about 750 to 1100m.[2] It is north of the Gwydir Highway. The White Rock and Glen Innes Wind Farms are south of the highway closer to Glen Innes.[3] It is intended to be colocated with a 200 MW solar farm.[4] The wind farm contains 75 Vestas V126 turbines, each of which can generate 3.6 MW of electricity. They each have a 137 metre hub height and 126 metre rotor diameter.[5] The project is approved to build up to 109 wind turbines.[6]

Operations

The wind farm began grid commissioning in February 2018 and was fully commissioned in November 2018 and has operated continuously since then. The generation table uses eljmkt nemlog to obtain generation values for each month.

Sapphire Wind Farm Generation (MWh)!Year!Total!Jan!Feb!Mar!Apr!May!Jun!Jul!Aug!Sep!Oct!Nov!Dec
2018393,832N/A7,017*16,704*15,825*11,046*22,676*27,450*42,688*49,170*56,579*71,738*72,939
2019799,63149,77384,00576,55482,73265,55153,70864,70356,07666,87259,14367,65572,859
2020792,93759,10972,79180,52852,02363,03748,55164,67668,84581,47262,81361,51577,577
2021788,22168,57371,74173,91455,52441,76462,92174,63156,78561,00368,57388,42064,372
2022863,15586,37679,26667,68076,68783,47943,82963,66365,39662,44182,67475,69275,972
2023718,27869,54467,88655,59667,99353,32457,14052,55753,60056,73462,79968,92652,179
Note: Asterisk indicates power output was limited during the month.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sapphire Wind Farm . 13 September 2019 . . 4 October 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191004174319/https://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/ . live .
  2. Web site: Compliance Report Sapphire Wind Farm, NSW EPBC 2011/5854. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210319212144/https://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/20171218_SWF_EPBC_Annualreport.pdf. 19 March 2021. 28 October 2020.
  3. Web site: Sapphire Wind Farm Map . . 13 September 2019 . 1 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200301213704/https://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sapphire_Wind_Farm_Map_web.pdf . live .
  4. Web site: Sapphire Solar . . 13 September 2019 . 1 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200301210823/https://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/sapphire-solar/ . live .
  5. Web site: Video - Sarens Tops the Tallest Turbine in Australia – Heavy Lift News. www.heavyliftnews.com. 2019-11-13. 28 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200928141949/https://www.heavyliftnews.com/video-sarens-tops-the-tallest-turbine-in-australia/. live.
  6. Web site: Sapphire Wind Farm . . 13 September 2019 . 13 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190813022756/https://inverell.nsw.gov.au/building-and-development/wind-farms/sapphire-wind-farm/ . live .