Mount Mercer Wind Farm

Mount Mercer Wind Farm website

The proposed Mount Mercer Wind Farm will be located at Mount Mercer approximately 30 kilometres south of Ballarat in Western Victoria on 2600ha. The wind farm will consist of 64 REpower MM92 wind turbines, giving a total installed capacity of 131 MW. It is expected to generate approximately 395,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity each year which could power approximately 74,000 households and result in a reduction of some 510,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Construction was due to commence in September 2009 under the management of WestWind Energy, however the project changed hands to Meridian Energy in the middle of 2009. Construction was delayed until the end of 2009 or early 2010 with Meridian Energy citing the global financial crisis as the cause of the delay in construction. Construction has been further delayed until December 2012 and is due for completion in 2014. Meridian Energy cite the reason as re-designing how the Mount Mercer Wind Farm is back hauled to the national grid and thus having to renegotiate easement agreements with local land owners.

A proposed location of the 64 wind turbines has been made available to the public. Local farmers who would have turbines on their land were offered $7000 per turbine per year.

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