The Albany Wind Farm may not be top of mind as a tourist place, but it is a spot that I think is worth a visit. Not only does it generate much of Albany’s power needs, but the coast is an impressive sight itself.
Albany Wind Farm
If you were to build a wind farm, Albany seems almost perfect. It windy weather means that it is generating electricity most pf the time. The 18 turbines located in the wind farm can generate up to 80% of the electricity needed for Albany.
When the wind farm was created, a decision was made to make it accessible to tourists. As such, there is a walking trail that takes you around the turbines. In addition, there are lookouts, picnic facilities and an interpretive centre.
The wind farm is open to the public every day of the year and is free to visit.
Getting There
The wind farm is located just a few kilometres from the centre of Albany along Frenchman Bay Road. There is a signpost along Frenchman Bay Road pointing you along Princess Avenue. Head down Princess Avenue, past the prison onto Sand Patch Road. This takes a windy path toward the wind farm and its car park.
From the car park, it is then a short walk through the bush to the first turbine. It’s all well signposted, so should be fairly straightforward to find.
Some Technical Details
Each of the towers is 65m tall and the turbine blades on each are 35m long. The generator mounted on the top of each tower weighs 50 tonnes.
The turbines are capable of generating power with winds as low as 7km/h. At the other end of the spectrum, they will shut themselves down if the wind exceeds 120 km/h. By design, they will turn themselves so they are facing into the wind.
The maximum power generation occurs when the winds are blowing at 50km/h. At that wind speed, the tips of the blades will be moving at 250km/h.Having said that, to look at the blades you’d think they were going fairly slow. Apparently they get up to about 20 rpm or so.
Albany Wind Farm Walking Trail
At the car park there is an information display, which doubles as a weather shelter. From there it is a short walk up a path to the first turbine. Alternatively, you can head up to a lookout to take in the view.
When you take a walk to the turbine, you can pretty much walk straight to the base of one of them. From there you can hear the sound of a gentle swoosh as the blade passes, together with the sound I guess of the turbine. It’s not particularly loud.
There is a walk that is about 2 kilometres or so long. It takes you in a loop around the wind farm and down past the ocean. At one point, it connects up with the Bibbulmun track, so you could take in a bit of that track while you were here. Of course, if were doing the whole track, you’d come past the wind farm.
Outside the wind farm, you get to see some good views of the ocean. Even if the wind farm wasn’t there, these are pretty good views.
