Coopers Gap Wind Farm is a proposed 500 MW wind power station in the Bilboa and Cooranga North region, approximately 50 km south west of Kingaroy and 65 km north of Dalby in Queensland, Australia.
A 60 m wind monitoring mast was installed in March 2006 in order to accurately measure wind speed and direction in the area.[1]
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The location for the wind farm is a hilly area to the west of the Bunya Mountains. The site area lies to the north and south of Niagara Road, starting approximately 3 km from the Bunya Highway, as well as to the west of Jarail Road. The site extends to Crowles Road to the south, Cooranga North-Niagara Road to the west, close to Nords Road and Diamondy Road to the North and close to Bunya Highway to the east.
The area is mostly cleared cattle grazing country and covers approximately 12,000 hectares in total.[2] The project falls within both the South Burnett Regional Council and Dalby Regional Council jurisdictions.[3]
Coopers Gap Wind Farm will have a total generation capacity of up to 500 MW and annually, 1.7 million megawatt hours. The wind farm will consist of up to 252 turbines[3] extending across a series of ridge lines within the proposed site. The wind turbines proposed will be approximately 135 m in height from the tower base to the tip of the blade.[4] The tower will be approximately 80 m high, and the blades approximately 52 metres in length with a rotor diameter of 104 metres. The construction cost of the project were initially to be over $1.2 billion.[3] However the project was revised to include 115 turbines and only cost A$800 million.[5]
The electricity generated from each turbine will be transmitted via underground or above ground cabling to a central cable marshalling point at the on site substation, which will be located next to the 220 kv or 132 kv power lines that run through the site area. The sub station will then connect directly into the grid network on site. It is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 2.2 million tonnes annually.[2]
In April 2011, some local landholders expressed concerns at a community forum related to health effects and the noise of the wind turbines, some of which will be less than a kilometre from homes.[5]
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