Australia’s largest wind farm is coming to Victoria

Golden Plains wind farm will soon be under construction in the Golden Plains Shire just 60 kilometres north-west of Geelong, Victoria. The wind farm is a project set to support Victoria’s transition to a clean energy future.

Once complete the wind farm is set to generate nine per cent of Victoria’s total electricity demand, enough clean energy to power more than 765,000 homes, equivalent to every home in regional Victoria.

The 1300 megawatt project is expected to be Australia’s largest wind farm and will play a key role in helping meet Victoria’s 95 per cent renewable energy target by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2045.

This wind farm is expected to prevent more than 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted to the atmosphere annually – equivalent to three per cent of Victoria’s total greenhouse emissions.

The project also represents a $2 billion investment in Victoria creating an estimated 700 jobs during construction and 72 ongoing jobs.

Related stories

Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio turned the sod on the 215-turbine wind farm site.

“This project is an example of how Victoria’s ambitious renewable energy policies are creating jobs and driving the renewables sector,” D’Ambrosio said.

The wind farm will also feature a 300 megawatt battery storage facility, making a contribution to the Victorian Renewable Energy Storage Targets of achieving at least 2.6 gigawatts of energy storage capacity by 2030 and 6.3 gigawatts by 2035.

According to the Victorian Government, the state is well on its way to achieving its emissions reduction target of net zero by 2045. A recent report published by the Commonwealth highlighted Victoria’s emissions declined by 3.8 percent between 2020 and 2021 – 32.3 per cent below 2005 levels.

Achieving Victoria’s renewable energy targets is estimated to deliver $9.5 billion in economic development and 59,000 two-year jobs over the period to 2035.

For more information, click here.