Wind energy: your opportunities and job prospects

Australia has excellent conditions for harvesting wind power – both onshore and offshore – and business is booming; wind power contributed 37.5 per cent of total renewable energy supply in 2020 and new projects are springing up all over the country in 2021. In November 2021, South Australia set multiple records for the biggest share of wind and solar for any gigawatt scale grid in the world.

In Western Australia, Moonies Hill Energy recently received approval to build a $400 million wind farm comprising 42 turbines up to an astounding 200 metres high – which will prove to be a game changer for energy generation. Multiple wind farms operate with a 250MW+ capacity across Australia, including Coopers Gap in Queensland, Sapphire in New South Wales, Hornsdale and Lake Bonney in South Australia and Macarthur in Victoria. A number of exciting projects are in construction, including 530MW Stockyard Hill in Victoria and 1026MW Acciona in Queensland (the biggest wind project in the country), which will come online in 2024. 

As projects take off across the country and the globe, wind power is seen as a beacon of hope for the generation of clean energy. However, the visible effects of the rotors on the landscape and existing ecosystems are criticised in on-shore wind farms. The industry is not only faced with the challenge of continuously developing wind energy, but also of ensuring appropriate acceptance for wind turbines on site.

Wind energy has made enormous strides in efficiency over the past 20 years. This is primarily due to more powerful turbines, but especially to higher wind turbines with larger rotor diameters. In the 1990s, the turbines barely reached a height of 100 metres, including rotors, but today's models are almost approaching the 300-metre mark. The rotor diameter is now also up to 150 metres. These dimensions also allow it to be set up in locations with less wind, as sufficient air movements must always be expected at the heights mentioned. 

The electricity generated by current wind turbines is significantly higher than that of earlier models. Today's wind power plant produces an average of up to ten gigawatt hours of electricity per year, around ten times the amount of older rotors. It is precisely for this reason that many repowering projects are currently underway, in which old wind turbines are replaced by newer models. For many wind farms this means that higher but fewer wind turbines are used. 

A technology that has just been implemented is what is known as “needs-based lighting”. Behind this is sensor-supported night lighting that is only activated when an object (e.g. airplane or helicopter) is actually approaching. This avoids the constant nightly blinking of wind turbines, which is perceived as annoying by many residents. The rotor blades of current systems are also equipped with heating technology that can prevent ice fall in winter - a potentially life-threatening problem in wind farms just a few years ago.

As an important pillar of the energy transition, wind energy opens up the opportunity to produce emission-free electricity from renewable energies and to help reduce CO2 emissions. Especially at certain locations, a strong wind blows all year round, which can be converted cleanly into energy. This applies to both land (onshore wind energy) and the sea (offshore wind energy).

In addition to other renewable energies, the use of wind energy is therefore a highly potent way of protecting the climate through decarbonisation and, at the same time, taking into account the increasing energy demand (i.e. through e-mobility).