Murra Warra Wind Farm

The University engaged in a power purchasing agreement with Murra Warra Wind Farm as a member of the Telstra led consortium in 2017.

This followed the success of the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project agreement in 2017 and supported the construction of a 61-turbine, 226 MW capacity wind farm north of Horsham. The consortium includes Telstra, the University of Melbourne, Coca-Cola Amatil, ANZ and Monash University.

Poster summary of Murra Warra wind farm capacity, jobs created, households powered (all detailed in the page text), and the organisational partners including Coca-Cola Amatil, Telstra, ANZ and the University of Melbourne.

Enabling net zero emissions from electricity

The University is contracted for the output of seven of the turbines which have a capacity of 3.7 MW each under average wind conditions over a year. It is estimated that these will generate 106 GWh of energy per year.

In addition to energy generated through the MREP agreement and other energy projects, this is projected to be able to offset University emissions generated from electricity by 2021.

Wider community benefits

The farm will have a total capacity of 429 MW once its second stage is complete, which will provide enough energy to power almost 220,000 Victorian homes per year, reducing 900,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.

The Murra Warra agreement was industry-leading in pricing and approach at the time and enabled the wind farm to secure contracting certainty for the output from the first stage of the project.

Awards

  • International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) 2019: Award Winner – Partnerships for Progress

landscape view of wind farm in regional Victoria