Huxley Hill Wind Farm
Location of Huxley Hill Wind Farm in Tasmania
CountryAustralia
LocationKing Island, Tasmania
Coordinates39°56′29″S 143°52′26″E / 39.94127825°S 143.87395767°E / -39.94127825; 143.87395767
StatusOperational
Commission date1998
Owner(s)Hydro Tasmania
Wind farm
Typeonshore
Power generation
Units operational3 X 250 kW
2 X 850 
Make and modelNordex N26
Vestas
Nameplate capacity2.5 MW

Huxley Hill Wind Farm (also known as the King Island Wind Farm) is a wind power station at King Island, Tasmania, Australia, of around 1600 residents, owned by Hydro Tasmania, which supplements the four diesel generators with a combined capacity of 6 MW at Currie Power Station. King Island also has a 100 kW solar capacity provided with monocrystaline solar panels on dual-axis arrays.

The wind farm started generating in 1998, initially with three 250 kW Nordex N26 wind turbines at a cost of $2.5 M ($3,300/kW),[1] then in 2003 with two 850 kW Vestas Turbines, to provide a total wind generating capacity of 2.5 MW of electricity. Wind generation provides around 35% of the annual generation.[2]

As a declared Community Service Obligation, the Tasmanian Government provides around $7 million per annum in funding support for the electricity supply equivalent to around $2,500 per resident per annum.[3]

Flow battery storage

Diagram of a Flow Battery

During the 2003 expansion a vanadium redox flow battery was installed at a cost of $4M (or $20,000 per kW),[4] containing 55,000 litres of vanadium based electrolyte—one of the first such installations on a wind farm. This allowed up to 800 kWh of surplus electricity to be stored. The battery has an output power of 200 kW, making up around 3% of total capacity, and could be used to smooth the substantial variability in wind output over minutes to hours. When used in conjunction with a variable resistive load, a higher wind penetration is possible, permitting the substantial second to second variability to be controlled with the resistor, reducing the need to spill excess wind through throttling of the turbines. A short-term peak output of 400 kW can be supplied. As a result, there has been a substantial reduction in the use of diesel fuel, however the full diesel capacity must be maintained, including the need to maintain spinning reserve for system security.[5] However, the system proved to be not robust enough and failed after a relatively short life. It has been replaced with a 1.6 MWh "advanced lead acid technology" battery.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ ABS - Feature Article - King Island wind farm
  2. ↑ Hydro Tasmania - Currie Power Station
  3. ↑ Hydro Tasmania - Powering the Bass Strait islands
  4. ↑ "There is rapidly increasing understanding of the need to reduce use of fossil fuels". ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au. Archived from the original on 23 October 2007.
  5. ↑ "King Island - Towards a sustainable energy future – presentation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  6. ↑ King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project
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