The Golden Plains Wind Farm, located 100km west of Melbourne in Rokewood, is set to become the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere upon completion. This $4 billion mega-project is a landmark renewable energy initiative for Victoria and Australia, featuring 215 turbines across 16,739 hectares and a 300 MW battery designed to store surplus energy and release it back to the grid during peak demand.
The project is expected to deliver nine per cent of Victoria’s energy, enough to power 765,000 homes, or every home in regional Victoria.
Project Challenge
The Golden Plains Wind Farm project addresses the growing need for renewable energy sources to meet Victoria's ambitious energy targets. The construction involves laying the foundations for 122 wind turbines in Stage 1, each turbine standing 149 metres tall with 79-metre-long blades weighing 22.7 tonnes. The challenge was to manage the logistics and coordination across a vast project site while ensuring timely and efficient delivery of materials.
Boral's Solution
Boral played a crucial role in the project by supplying 90,000 cubic metres of 40-50MPA concrete and 150,000 tonnes of aggregate. Our team worked closely with MPK, setting up a mobile batch plant and coordinating logistics to ensure smooth operations. The final base pour for Stage 1 took place on 19th April 2024.
Pouring 122 foundations across a vast project site like this is no small feat. This required exceptional collaboration from our teams over 11 months. From the team at Sandy Creek and Dunnstown who provided the raw materials, to our mobile batch plant set up and logistics teams all the way to the relationship management expertise on the ground working with MPK.
Colleagues from Queensland also joined in to help with logistics mobilisation and demobilisation and concrete batch operators who came down to support the job.
Project Outcomes
Stage 1 of the Golden Plains Wind Farm was completed successfully after 20 months of construction, with the wind farm making its first connection to the electricity grid in October 2024. Stage 2 is set to begin construction in 2025, and Boral has successfully secured the work to lay the remaining turbine foundations.
This project is not only a significant step towards renewable energy but also a major contributor to environmental sustainability. Once complete, the 1.3 gigawatt wind farm will produce over 4,000 gigawatt hours of green energy annually, meeting nine per cent of Victoria’s current energy demand.
The facility will also prevent more than 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted each year, equivalent to three per cent of Victoria’s total greenhouse emissions. Additionally, the 300 MW battery on site will store excess energy and release it back to the grid during peak demand, ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply.
Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio highlighted the significance of the project: “The Golden Plains Wind Farm will be able to power every regional Victorian home – delivering lower bills for Victorian families. Victoria is the clean energy investment capital of Australia, and this project is another example of how Victoria's ambitious renewable energy policies are creating jobs and driving the renewables sector.”
Conclusion
The Golden Plains Wind Farm is one of many projects that showcase Boral's capabilities in supporting large-scale renewable energy infrastructure. As Australia's largest vertically-integrated construction materials provider, we are uniquely positioned to support major projects with superior product quality, reliable delivery and technical expertise.
Further, our involvement in this landmark project underscores our commitment to sustainability and innovation. As the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere, the Golden Plains Wind Farm will play a crucial role in meeting Victoria’s renewable energy targets and driving the transition to a cleaner, greener future.
