ACCIONA Energy will begin construction of its Mt Gellibrand wind farm in Victoria early next year after winning a groundbreaking tender held by the state government for the purchase of green energy certificates linked to renewable energy generated in Victoria.

ACCIONA Energy Oceania Managing Director Andrew Thomson said the State Government's decision to purchase green energy certificates linked to 66MW of the planned Mount Gellibrand wind farm had secured the project's future, driving job creation and investment in the region.

The Government of Victoria's tender for green energy certificates, like similar programs of other State and Territory governments, are a major boost for renewable energy projects. The generation of new, zero-emissions electricity will also help Australia lower its carbon emissions and meet commitments entered into at the Paris Climate Change Conference last year.

'This is very positive news for the growth of ACCIONA in Victoria, where we already operate the 192MW Waubra wind farm and where we have a number of additional wind energy projects in development,' Mr Thomson said.

Start-up in 2018

Construction work at Mt Gellibrand, located 65km west of Geelong, is expected to begin in early 2017, with entry into service scheduled for 2018. Once completed, it will generate enough clean energy to power more than 60,000 households, while avoiding the emission of around 200,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations every year.

Mt Gellibrand will be ACCIONA's fourth wind farm in Australia, after Cathedral Rocks (64 MW in South Australia), Waubra (192 MW in Victoria) and Gunning (46.5 MW in New South Wales). With a total of 302.5 MW in operational capacity, Australia is Acciona Energy’s fourth largest market after Spain, the US and Mexico.

Together with developing its own facilities, in 2014 ACCIONA put a 20 MW (24 MWp) nominal power photovoltaic plant into service for a customer in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). At the time, the solar plant was Australia’s largest.

ACCIONA is also present in Australia with its Infrastructure division, which is involved in a number of road, light rail and water projects across the country.