NSW deep dive › New England REZ › White Rock Wind Farm

White Rock Wind Farm

Goldwind Australia / CECEP

windoperatingConfidence: High

Capacity and technology

Technology

wind

Capacity (MW)

391 MW

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$1.37B benchmark estimate

391 MW × $3.5M/MW (wind, NSW 2025-26 escalated)

Industry benchmark only — not project-specific. Sources: Clean Energy Council, BloombergNEF 2024 Australian utility-scale LCOE inputs, AEMO ISP 2024 cost assumptions. Actual capex varies materially by site, OEM, supply chain and grid-connection works.

Estimated local / regional spend

~$301M benchmark estimate

22% of capex — Clean Energy Council benchmark for renewable energy construction in regional Australia. Actual local content varies by project siting, procurement strategy and any access-scheme local-content conditions.

Estimated peak construction workforce

~274 roles benchmark estimate

Industry benchmark: ~0.7 FTE/MW wind, 0.5 FTE/MW solar, 0.4 FTE/MWh BESS, 1.5 FTE/MW pumped hydro. Peak during civil/electrical phase only — operations workforce is typically ~5-10% of construction peak.

Workforce breakdown — sector mix and phasing

Sector mix and phase distribution for the estimated construction workforce. Basis: industry norm (Clean Energy Council, ARENA, AEMO ISP 2024 + comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments). Numbers are decision-support indicators, not a project-specific forecast.

By service sector / industry (peak year)

Civil / earthworks

~82 FTE

Electrical trades

~49 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~60 FTE

Plant operators

~33 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~27 FTE

Logistics / admin

~22 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~164	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~274	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~192	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~19	Permanent O&M workforce — typically 5–10% of construction peak. Plus periodic major-maintenance windows.

Sector mix from CEC, ARENA and AEMO ISP workforce profiles for utility-scale Australian builds. Phase distribution from comparable EIS Social Impact Assessments. Indicative only — actual workforce varies with OEM, contractor strategy, weather and OSOM scheduling.

Approvals and access rights

Project status

operating

Planning status

Stage 1 (175 MW) operating since 2018; Stage 2 expansion (up to 216 MW, 48 additional turbines) in planning

Access right status

pre-REZ access scheme (Stage 1); Stage 2 pre-access scheme

EPBC status

Stage 1 approved/operating; Stage 2 to be confirmed

Grid connection

Stage 1 connected; Stage 2 grid-connection in development

Financial close

Stage 1 complete; Stage 2 subject to planning

Construction start

Stage 2: unknown

Operations start

Stage 2: unknown

Location

LGA

Glen Innes Severn / Inverell Shire

Region

Northern Tablelands NSW — ~20 km west of Glen Innes, ~40 km east of Inverell

REZ

New England REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-29.72, 151.45 (approximate)

Project documents — EIS, SEARs, proponent pages

Direct links to public documents and pages for this project. Phase 2 ingestion will pull updates automatically; Sprint 0 entries are verified manually with a confidence score per record.

proponent pageConfidence: Very high
White Rock Wind Farm
https://whiterockwindfarm.com/ ↗
Stage 1 = 70 turbines, 175 MW operational since 2018. Stage 2 = up to 48 turbines, 216 MW in planning. Combined potential ~391 MW.
otherConfidence: High
White Rock Wind Farm — Inverell Shire Council
https://inverell.nsw.gov.au/building-and-development/renewable-energy-development/white-rock-wind-farm/ ↗
Council page on White Rock Wind Farm planning history.

Notes

Operating + expansion. Capacity figure shown is combined Stage 1 (175 MW operating) + Stage 2 (216 MW in planning). Stage 2 advances the operating footprint by ~123% — relevant for cumulative pressure modelling.

Source confidence: 82/100
Last verified: 2026-05-15
Every material fact on this page is sourced. A "View source" link is provided per source below.

Source evidence

Confidence: High

secondaryProponent project websites
View source ↗
Proponent-supplied content from each project's dedicated page on the proponent's website. Useful for technology, capacity intent, community engagement messaging, project newsletters, fact sheets and timeline updates. Cannot override official planning_status or epbc_status. Per-project page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.
primaryAEMO — Generation Information
View source ↗
Technical pipeline data for NEM connections. Authoritative for grid-connection technical status.

Open questions

Planning status against the NSW Planning Portal — verify SSD reference.
EPBC referral status — verify against DCCEEW public notices.
Storage MWh and voltage figures — confirm from proponent documents and AEMO Generation Information.
Workforce and accommodation commitments — confirm in SSD documentation or VPA.
First Nations engagement reporting — confirm in IEP / cultural heritage chapter.

See this project in context

REZ workspace

New England REZ

All projects, pressure bands and shared-value commitments for this REZ

LGA detail

Glen Innes Severn

2 projects · everything affecting this council area

LGA detail

Inverell Shire

2 projects · everything affecting this council area

Workforce + supply ratio

Demand vs ABS baseline