Conergy's Bold Australian Wind Farm Project - 10/8/07

German solar power company Conergy is seeking approval to build the largest windmill in Australia, taking a 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.8 billion) bet on the country's Parliament passing legislation supporting renewable energy.

Under Conergy's blueprint, 500 turbines will be placed near the hamlet of Silverton, New South Wales, in the five years starting from the year 2009. With a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts, the project aims at producing energy for 400,000 homes, meeting about 4.5% of the state's electricity demand. The German-designed wind farm would be 10 times bigger than the next-largest wind farm approved for the state and could reduce Australia's carbon dioxide emissions by at least 3 million tons of a year.

This site has some of the best wind resources in the country. Silverton, a small village at the western edge of New South Wales, 16 miles northwest of Broken Hill, is best known as the backdrop for several Australian movies such as Mad Max II and A Town Like Alice. The fact that the village is inhabited by only a handful of artists makes it less difficult for Conergy to propose the windmill project.

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