I will always have incredibly fond memories of the time I spent on Challicum Hills Wind Farm.
2023 marked its 20th Birthday, or 25th depending on your perception of when a project is “born”.
Reminiscing with the project team I have come to realise that Challicum launched many careers and businesses in the sector. A common theme among those involved was how incredibly fortunate they were to have been in that time and place, able to be involved and make an impact.
I thought it would be fitting to bring some of their thoughts together and recognise what a pioneering and pivotal project Challicum was from the perspective of renewable energy in Australia.
While commissioned in 2003, the wind farm was conceived years earlier, around 1998, by the visionary engineer and environmental scientist, Frank Fisher, his partner MairiAnne Mackenzie and her father Alistair, who were landholders of the windswept Challicum Hills.
An environmental scientist and environmental activist, MairiAnne was keenly aware of the plight of our planet and the complexities at play creating net environmental benefit and sought to take action.
Frank and MairiAnne contacted Pacific Hydro about the possibility of a wind farm. Jeff Harding (CEO of Pacific Hydro) still vividly recalls the day Grant Flynn (Development Manager) brought Alistair McKenzie into the office to discuss the project.
Grant worked closely with Kim Van Hatton and Michele Bourne under the wing of Roger Hollaway to gain approvals for the project. Together they ensured that the project also encompassed the six surrounding landholders, was constructable, and had minimal environmental impact.
Their collective vision set the project up for future success both from a construction and operations and community perspective.
At the time Australia’s collective wind experience encompassed four small wind farms and a handful of turbines enabled by futurists. Challicum, at 35 WTGs, was over twice the size of any operating project at the time, the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere.
Given Australia’s wind industry was in its infancy, execution experience was lacking on the ground. But what was lacking in experience was more than made up by determination, cooperation, and innovation.
In preparation for Challicum Hills, Jeff Harding and Bernard Wheelahan (chairman of the board Pacific Hydro), brought in wind expertise via Scotsman, David Hastings (GM Wind), who had previously delivered wind farms in Ireland and Texas.
Luckily for me, David was well before his time and quickly employed a team of young women to fill senior technical and engineering rolesm including Elisabete Belaunde (wind engineer from Spain), Helen Kenedy (development and community consultation from UK) and myself (project manager for Challicum).
Chatting with David recently, I asked him if he was conscious of being a groundbreaker employing women. In David’s typical no-nonsense style he said “no;” he employed women “simply because I thought they were best for their roles.”
The wind development and engineering team we joined became largely female, as Kim Van Hatton recalls “we were just too busy getting on with it to realise it was something special at the time.”
From Jeff Harding’s perspective it was simply the result of recruiting for passion and competence. “We wanted people who wanted to work for us, believed in the climate issue and renewables, and were competent.”
We thank David and Jeff for the opportunity, they put together a great group of people who are still connected and active in the renewables industry.
Challicum was innovative so in many ways.
Significantly it was the first commercially funded renewables project in Australia. As commented recently by Westpac’s James Sanguinetti, “It essentially set the benchmark for a number of aspects of project financing for renewables projects, including debt sizing, due diligence and documentation. While the market has evolved a lot since that time, a lot of that framework remains relevant today.” I won’t talk much about the financing here as it has been covered by others.
Andrew Richards (Pacific Hydro) secured a PPA with Origin Energy, which was pivotal in enabling the project financing, and negotiated the connection agreement with Powercor. Ian Debney (Pacific Hydro) and Guy Nicholson (Econnect) spent countless months worrying through the grid connection arrangements and electrical design with Powercor and Alstom. Again, breaking new territory with plenty of headaches and need for innovation.
NEG Micon (Dan Hansen, Thomas Karst, Poul Martin Wael, Pete Cowling, Dennis Williams) were awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction package. Keppel Prince Engineering (Stephen Garner) secured the WTG tower supply and Poul Martin Wael reached out to Strongforce to see if they would be able to design and construct rock anchored foundations for the WTGs.
As Nick Canto (design manager for Strongforce) recalls, “without really knowing any better, we said ‘sure’ and then went to work to configure a design and associated cost plan to undertake the civil works.”
Strongforce’s proposal (Dave Moran, Gavin Gray, Tim Peters, Nick Canto) was good enough to secure the contract with NEG Micon. Their foundations were pioneering involving spiralling tensioned cables that anchored the WTG into the rock substrate. A small stressed cap held the embedded cylinder on top and the WTG tower base section was welded to it, in-situ on site.
The physical and environmental footprint of the foundations was tiny compared with conventional gravity foundations. This minimised ground disruption and the need for water and concrete, perfect for the terrible drought conditions and steep ridgelines of Challicum Hills. The all-important geotech was covered by Ian Shipway of Coffey.
Strongforce hired a young Phil Cornish as project manager and brought in Peter Reed as site mManager; Kim Charlton of SKS undertook the surveying.
Site work exposed them to all the seasons, with the incredible heat and freezing cold always accompanied by wind. Phil reminded me of the chilly 6.30am pre-start meetings in the winter fog, followed by incredible beauty when the fog lifted, the sun shone and a view across Langi Ghiran and Grampians was revealed.
The site delivery team for NEG Micon was headed by Bruce Payne and Phil Munnari (PM and APM respectively). As they came to know too well, the site conditions that made Challicum Hills excellent for a wind farm rendered it difficult to construct. I vividly recall having to force open the car door with my legs against the constant high winds on many occasions.
We quickly learnt everything needed to be firmly secured and site loos certainly weren’t left on the ridgelines after the first experience of collecting them from the gully. None of this surprised Elisabeth Belaunde and Danny Walsh who undertook the wind engineering for Pacific Hydro.
A team of experienced Danes including Carsten Brink, Soren Anderson and Lars Anderson were flown in to lead the WTG installation and establish the wind farm the control systems. Working with National Cranes the team organised the complex delivery and erection of the WTGs, push-pulling the WTG components around the steep ridgeways and managing lifts with great precision.
Matt Kelly spent many months on site as owners engineer, under the watchful gaze of Tim Gosbell who was incredibly generous sharing his knowledge and wisdom. Tim recalls what a “blast the job was … we were figuring out how to deliver it together.” While Lane Crocket kept on eye on proceedings for the banks.
The project was made more complex as the construction unions became interested. They saw it as new territory and were keen to establish specific award conditions. Financing through construction was also “extra;” the boozy lunches at The Vines in Ararat were one thing, but the changes to contracts and requirements not quite so easy.
An industry leading revegetation program was headed by Kim Jolly (Pacific Hydro), who will always be young and we miss dearly. Teaming with MairiAnne, landholders and local Landcare group, Kim ran a program collecting seeds on site, growing seedlings, fencing and revegetating existing erosion gullies across the hills. Emma Bennett (Elmoby Ecology) began a new field of study working with her dogs to undertake bird and bat surveys.
Watching the windfarm access tracks being carefully woven through the sparse trees on the ridge tops and the giant turbines rise from the ground like flowers inspired many. Shaun Blackie recalls watching construction from his hometown of Ararat and being “endlessly amazed by the project”. Shaun was so impressed he went on to pursue a career in windfarm operations and maintenance, looking after Challicum for over a decade.
Not only was the project an industry success but it enjoyed great community support a testament to all involved as shown by the Ararat Rural City’s commendation of Challicum to the Select Committee on Wind Turbines.
We all learnt so very much about the impact, development, design, connection, construction and operations of windfarms through Challicum and many of us have gone on to spend our careers in renewables.
With the lasting memories of the project being the people we met, friendships formed through co-operation and shared endeavour. Connections that have helped create the future of renewables in Australia.
I have only scratched the surface sharing stories and mentioning those who contributed to making Challicum the success it is. Some of us have passed on, others are retired, and many are active in the sector. Together we made a difference. It would be great to collect other’s memories and contributions via the comments below, so they are not lost.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn. Republished here with permission. Read the original version here.
