On Monday (20th Aug), the last steps in the installation of 3.6MW turbine was completed in Flinders Shire (Queensland). Having blades of 67 meters and a 136 meter rotor. this is one of the twelve similar capacity Vestas V136 that constitutes this project. With this, we are a step closer in completing the world’s first utility-grade combined solar, wind and battery storage system – Kennedy Energy Park. As per NQR report, a 750 ton mobile crane was used to install this 132 meter high turbine. The hybrid project development is by Windlab and Eurus Energy Holdings, with Quanta and Vestas managing the engineering and construction.
The Kennedy project is a grid connected solar-wind-battery combo with final planned energy generation of 1200MW. This will enable it to deliver power to over 800,000 homes in North Queensland. The first stage of this hub will include 15MW solar, 43MW wind and 4MWh of battery storage. This generation mix will provide clean and reliable energy to the grid. The project location is 22kms south-east of Hughenden. The construction started in Dec 2017 and this first stage is scheduled to be completed by late 2018. Official report places the capital investment at AUD 160 million with the major portion (54.7%) coming from Debt financing – $93.5 million from Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) debt. Windlab retains the ownership of the park with $18 million grant from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Kennedy Energy Park – Tech Spec.
The PV array is installed at -20.875 latitude and 144.421 longitude with 19350 kW DC peak capacity. The single axis horizontal array includes 55680 Jinko (JKM345M and JKM350M) modules – 39 modules per string. The solar panels occupies an area of 109751 m2. There are 6 SMA (SC2500-EV) 2500kW inverters with 9280 strings connected to each. The wind farm includes 12 V136 (Vestas) IIIA turbines. These two renewable energy generation is complimented by the 4MWh tesla Li ion storage system. The configuration includes four 500kW Powerpack inverters with a Roundtrip efficiency of 87%. Furthermore, location (selected by Windlab) receives horizontal irradiation of 2281 kWh/m2 , and has a wind speed of 7.5 m/s. This places the generation estimate at 217 GWh/annum. The completion of the Kennedy Energy park will be a milestone in the evolving energy landscape of the sunshine state.