The Flyers Creek area south of Orange has come alive with the sound and sight of heavy machinery crossing the landscape.
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The commencement of the Flyers Creek Wind Farm project means that before the first turbine rises in November, the infrastructure and transport coordination will need to be completed.
If you're expecting the towers to be a similar size to the ones surrounding Carcoar Dam, they won't be.
The turbines at Carcoar have a 45 metre hub and a 47 metre rotor diameter. The ones at Flyers Creek will have a maximum of a 91 metre hub and each blade will be 68.5 metres.
This takes the average height of the turbines to 160 metres from the ground to the tip of a blade. As a visual comparison the distance from the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge to the water level is 134 metres.
Due to the layout of the site not all the turbines will be the same size, and the parts are made in differing countries.
The blades are mainly made of fibreglass - epoxy resin/polyester and are made in China as are the tower sections. The remainder is mostly made in Europe.
Turbine components are transported in oversized loads with the blades being the longest. Each turbine will require separate trips with four or five tower sections plus the cell and the blades all coming on separate loads.
For a long time we have seen the future of renewable energy as inescapable and definitely happening.
- Ross Rolfe
The trip will come from Port Kembla down towards the Yass turn off on the Hume Expressway, then along the Mid-Western Highway to the Errowanbang turnoff and onto the site.
As the turbines are going up the connection to the grid will also be undertaken and the Chief Executive Officer of Iberdrola Australia Ross Rolfe said that they were taking into account the region's biggest development.
"The technical complexity of connecting new generation to the existing grid is always challenging," he said.
"It was particularly challenging here because we wanted to make sure to do it in a way that doesn't cause any issues for Cadia Valley Operations because we don't want to interrupt their production process."
Mr Rolfe said that the recent election of the Federal Labor Government and the NSW Government's support of renewables will allow industry and government to deliver a common shared view of the energy system of the future.
"For a long time we have seen the future of renewable energy as inescapable and definitely happening,' he said.
"Is it good to have in both the state and federal governments a consensus view now of what the goals are, and the pace of that transition? It's a very good thing to have."
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