Exmouth is an isolated coastal town on the North West Cape in Western Australia. The township has a population of approximately 2400 people and is a popular tourist destination. The area is renowned for tropical cyclones as demonstrated by Cyclone Vance which devastated the town in 1999.
Given its isolated location, the town was supplied solely by a diesel fuelled electricity system until the installation of three Western Australian designed and manufactured wind turbines in 2002. These wind turbines were installed to reduce the reliance on diesel fuel and to demonstrate the unique wind turbine design for cyclonic regions.
The lightweight, transportable, tow-up 20kW wind turbines with guyed towers were developed by Westwind Turbines of Perth and can be quickly lowered ahead of an advancing cyclone. Being tow-up wind turbines also means they are constructed on the ground prior to raising which alleviates the need for a high lift crane. This is a major advantage in remote locations.
The Exmouth power system comprises 3 wind turbines (60kW total capacity) connected to a 6MW diesel fuelled electricity grid. The Exmouth wind farm is connected through a step-up transformer onto the grid and operates autonomously with the existing diesel fuelled electricity system.
The Exmouth Wind Farm produces about 120MWh of electricity annually (enough to supply approximately 20 homes).
The Exmouth Wind Farm is designed to be lowered prior to an advancing cyclone. Each turbine takes about 20 minutes to lower using a heavy vehicle and a tow cable attached to the gin pole. A number of options can be incorporated to lower the turbines including tow-up cables and electric winches. These options are customised to suit the location.
The Exmouth wind turbines are each coupled to the Exmouth electricity grid via an inverter. These inverters provide a high quality supply from the wind farm without the need for battery storage on the varying wind farm output.
For more information on this project please see our brochure in the Downloads section.