Australian’s first commercial wind farm is set to be painstakingly dismantled by cranes as the turbines reach the end of their 20-year lifespan.
Sitting on rolling green hills overlooking Port Fairy in southwest Victoria, Pacific Blue’s Codrington Windfarm is considered a ‘close to perfect’ location for wind towers.
The wind farm generates enough energy required to power 10,000 homes each year while avoiding the emission of nearly 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
But almost 24 years later, the site’s 14 50metre-high turbines are among the first of its generation to approach the end of their working lives.
Pacific Blue said it hopes to become a renewables industry leader ‘twice over’ in its approach to dismantling the turbines using cranes
The project is a massive undertaking but is more likely to win the approval of surrounding communities than the alternative method of using explosives.
‘A decision was recently made that all turbines at the Codrington Wind Farm will be disassembled onsite through the use of cranes in the reverse order of how the turbines were assembled,’ a Pacific Blue spokesperson told Renew Economy.
