The largest commercial wind farm in the southern hemisphere is in the final stages of commercial assessment in Victoria, Australia. Named the Macarthur Wind Farm, it is a joint venture partnership between AGL and Meridian Energy, which is New Zealand’s largest generator of electricity using only renewable resources.

The Macathur Wind Farm has a proposed maximum generating capacity of 450MW of electricity and will be comprised of 150 wind turbines scattered over 5500 hectares between the townships of Macarthur, Hawkesdale and Penshurst in the Western Districts of Victoria.

The electricity generated from the facility will be enough to power around 150,000 homes per year and will introduce considerable infrastructure development to a rural region. The project will create 200 jobs during the construction phase and will create related job opportunities for the local community.

The actual turbines that will be used for the project are still yet to be decided upon as is the precise location of each turbine, which will be decided after an assessment is made on the impacts each one will have on the adjacent residents.

It is hoped that construction of the Macarthur Wind Farm will get underway during 2009 but there has been no indication given as to when the wind project will be completed and electricity will be added to the national grid.