Antinuclear

25 anniversary of Australia’s oldest operating wind turbine, and still going strong

 These days, the wind turbine that could delivers around 80,000kWh a year to the grid, with an estimated 90-95 per cent availability

Blow out the candles: Australia’s oldest wind turbine turns 25 REneweconomy, By Sophie Vorrath  4 December 2012 November might have been a milestone month for solar, with cumulative PV installations reaching 2GW, but it also marked a reasonably big milestone for wind: 25 years since the Breamlea Wind Turbine, near Geelong in Victoria, was commissioned.

Manufactured in Western Australia by Westwind, the 60kW turbine was
installed in November 1987 as a demonstration unit by the State
Electricity Commission of Victoria (who were pulled “kicking and
screaming into the RE era,” according to one insider who worked on the
project), and the Victorian Solar Energy Council (now Energy Victoria)
– making it the oldest operating wind turbine in the country (there
were some that were older, but they have been decommissioned.)

In 1994, the wind turbine was sold to the Alternative Technology
Association as part of the privatisation of Victoria’s electricity
supply. Using volunteers, the ATA overhauled its mechanics, controls
and electrics and had it recommissioned by the year’s end, before
selling it into private ownership a year later to Michael Gunter, one
of their members.

According to Gunter, the SECV got 7kW average power out of the
Breamlea wind generator, while he and the ATA got 10.3kW average
power. “So we have some runs on the board when it comes to
productivity,” Gunter wrote on an ABC Science web forum in 1999,
“despite the advancing years of the turbine.”

Located on Black Rock Road, the wind turbine is currently owned by
local water utility Barwon Water, who bought it in 2003, after it had
suffered an electrical generator burn-out, and restored it to service
in early 2004. These days, the wind turbine that could delivers around 80,000kWh a year to the grid, with an estimated 90-95 per cent availability…..
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/blow-out-the-candles-australias-oldest-wind-turbine-turns-25-95412

December 4, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Victoria, wind