Sapphire Wind Farm

29°42′S 151°25′E / 29.70°S 151.41°E / -29.70; 151.41StatusOperationalConstruction beganJanuary 2017Commission dateDecember 2017Construction costA$590mOperator(s)CWP RenewablesWind farm TypeOnshoreHub height137 metres (449 ft)Rotor diameter126 metres (413 ft)Site area8,921 hectares (89.21 km²)Site elevation750 to 1,100 metres (2,460 to 3,610 ft)Power generation Units operational75 × 3.6 MWMake and modelVestas V126Nameplate capacity270 MWCapacity factor34.29% (average 2019-2022)Annual net output811 GWh (average 2019-2022)External linksWebsitehttps://www.sapphirewindfarm.com.au/

Sapphire Wind Farm is a 270 megawatt (MW) wind farm in the Australian state of New South Wales. When it was built in 2018, it was the largest wind farm in New South Wales. It is located in the New England region of northern New South Wales, 28 kilometres east of Inverell and 18 kilometres west of Glen Innes.^[1] The farm covers approximately 8921 hectares of cleared grazing land, and has an elevation of about 750 to 1100m.^[2] It is north of the Gwydir Highway. The White Rock and Glen Innes Wind Farms are south of the highway closer to Glen Innes.^[3] It is intended to be colocated with a 200 MW solar farm.^[4] The wind farm contains 75 Vestas V126 turbines, each of which can generate 3.6 MW of electricity. They each have a 137 metre hub height and 126 metre rotor diameter.^[5] The project is approved to build up to 109 wind turbines.^[6]

Operations

The wind farm began grid commissioning in February 2018 and was fully commissioned in November 2018^[1] and has operated continuously since then. The generation table uses eljmkt nemlog to obtain generation values for each month.

Sapphire Wind Farm Generation (MWh)

Year	Total	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2018	393,832	N/A	7,017*	16,704*	15,825*	11,046*	22,676*	27,450*	42,688*	49,170*	56,579*	71,738*	72,939
2019	799,631	49,773	84,005	76,554	82,732	65,551	53,708	64,703	56,076	66,872	59,143	67,655	72,859
2020	792,937	59,109	72,791	80,528	52,023	63,037	48,551	64,676	68,845	81,472	62,813	61,515	77,577
2021	788,221	68,573	71,741	73,914	55,524	41,764	62,921	74,631	56,785	61,003	68,573	88,420	64,372
2022	863,155	86,376	79,266	67,680	76,687	83,479	43,829	63,663	65,396	62,441	82,674	75,692	75,972

Note: Asterisk indicates power output was limited during the month.

References