AGL (AGK) announced today that it plans to build another wind farm at Hallett Hill in South Australia which will be in operation by November 2009.
The 71 Mega Watt (MW) wind farm will cost $166 million and will create 150 jobs during the construction phase.
Managing Director of AGL Michael Fraser said the project would reinforce the company's leadership position in Australia's renewable energy sector.
"AGL has put considerable work into building a renewable generation portfolio that will deliver substantial environmental and financial benefits in a future carbon constrained world."
The company said that Hallett Hill will extend AGL's renewable generation portfolio to approximately 1,000MW.
AGL also has two other wind farms operating in South Australia.
Mr Frazer said the Hallett Hill project will be built approximately 20km from AGL's Brown Hill wind farm, which will provide opportunities for operating efficiencies and synergies.
"The Hallett Hill wind farm will significantly add to AGL's capability to self-supply its renewable generation needs and the operation of all three wind farms will supply a substantial component of AGL's obligations under the Federal Government's Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme (MRET)."
"We are also proceeding, on time and on budget, with the 140MW Bogong hydro power project in Victoria and the existing 95MW Brown Hill wind farm."
Mr Frazer said that when it is commissioned in 2009, the wind farm will provide enough renewable energy to power 40,000 average Australian households and abate approximately 250,000 tonnes of CO2.
The Hallett Hill project will be earnings accretive from its first year of operation in the 2009 financial year.
Despite AGL's enthusiasm for the new project, shares in AGL dropped by 1% today to close down by 13 cents at $12.90.
