NSW deep dive › New England REZ › Winterbourne Wind Farm

Winterbourne Wind Farm

Vestas / Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (Walcha Energy Project consortium)

windresponse to submissionsConfidence: High

Capacity and technology

Technology

wind

Capacity (MW)

731 MW

Estimated capex, local spend and peak workforce

Total development cost

~$2.56B benchmark estimate

731 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

~$563M 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

~512 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

~154 FTE

Electrical trades

~92 FTE

Mechanical / structural

~113 FTE

Plant operators

~61 FTE

PM / engineering / env

~51 FTE

Logistics / admin

~41 FTE

By phase (across construction window)

Phase	FTE	What's happening
Mobilisation + civils (year 1)	~307	Site prep, access roads, foundations, early electrical. Civil trades dominant.
Peak construction (year 2)	~512	All trades concurrent. Turbine / panel delivery, electrical install, commissioning prep.
Commissioning / demob (year 3)	~358	Specialist electrical and testing. Civil and structural ramping down.
Operations (ongoing)	~36	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

response to submissions

Planning status

EIS lodged; Amendment Report + Response to Further Information lodged November 2025; EPBC referral lodged

Access right status

not awarded — NE REZ access scheme yet to be declared

EPBC status

EPBC referral lodged — verify on EPBC public portal

Grid connection

subject to NE REZ network design

Financial close

subject to determination

Construction start

2027

Operations start

2030

Location

LGA

Walcha / Uralla Shire

Region

Northern Tablelands NSW — north and east of Walcha

REZ

New England REZ

REZ relationship

inside declared REZ

Coordinates

-30.95, 151.6 (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 highPublished: 2025-11
Winterbourne Wind Farm
https://www.winterbournewindfarm.com.au/ ↗
Up to 118 turbine locations (~731 MW) using Vestas V162-6.2 MW turbines. Hub height ~149m, max tip ~230m. Construction targeted 2027 (~36 months + commissioning), operations 2030.
planning portal pageConfidence: Very high
Winterbourne Wind Farm — NSW Planning Portal
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/winterbourne-wind-farm ↗
Hosts EIS, response to submissions and amendment documents.

Notes

Co-developed within the Walcha Energy Project consortium. Vestas acquired CIP's stake in late 2021. Acquired EPBC referral lodged. Amongst the largest single wind farms in advanced planning in the NE REZ. Multi-LGA project spanning Walcha and Uralla.

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

primaryNSW Planning Portal — Major Projects
View source ↗
Authoritative for NSW SSD and SSI planning status. Hosts each project's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), SEARs, response to submissions, and other planning documents. Outranks proponent and media reports for planning_status. Per-project EIS and SSD page URLs are tracked under each project's project_documents.
primaryDCCEEW — EPBC referrals and approvals
View source ↗
Authoritative for EPBC referral and approval status. EPBC approval is separate from state planning approval.
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.

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

Walcha

2 projects · everything affecting this council area

LGA detail

Uralla Shire

11 projects · everything affecting this council area

Workforce + supply ratio

Demand vs ABS baseline