ENTREPRENEUR Nick Tana’s family enterprise is embarking on a new adventure – wind farms.
ENTREPRENEUR Nick Tana’s family enterprise is embarking on a new adventure – wind farms.
The horticultural empire run by Mr Tana’s three children is importing 20 used wind turbines from Europe to generate up to 10 Megawatts of power across three properties, two proposed in the Shire of Gingin and one in the Shire of Dandaragan.
The move is unusual for a family enterprise in Australia, reflecting the entrepreneurial attitude of Mr Tana, who has been a big player in the Australian fast food scene, was the original backer of the Perth Glory soccer team and more recently moved into plantation forestry.
While the wind project is still battling red tape from multiple levels of government, Mr Tana’s son Vincent said the key objective was to insure against price rises in energy.
“Financially it is very break even,” Vincent Tana said.
“It is almost an insurance policy about what is going forward.
“There is definitely a marketing advantage but that is not the prime reason we are doing it.”
The group’s project is most progressed in the Dandaragan region where it has approval for five wind turbines that it hopes will supply up to 80 per cent of the power needs at its West Hills Farms site, which grows carrots for export.
Another proposed wind farm at Cowalla Road in the Gingin area would also have five wind turbines to help power the group’s oil production facility at its Olive West operation.
Vincent Tana declined to provide details for the biggest of the wind farms, which will also be around Gingin and will have 10 turbines.
National renewable energy group Pacific Hydro is also proposing the Nilgen wind farm in the Gingin shire, with 53 turbines capable of generating more than 132MW in total planned for a site nine kilometres east of Lancelin. The development is understood to have been awaiting approval of a 330kV power line to upgrade the South West Interconnected System network’s link to the Geraldton area.
Local consultant Matthew Rosser, who has his own renewable energy business, Blair Fox, is project managing the Tana wind farm enterprise and has been running the Pacific Hydro development.
Vincent Tana said local government approval was a big hurdle for the group, especially in Gingin, where there was less experience with wind farms than in Dandaragan, which already hosts the Griffin group’s Emu Downs operation.
In addition, he said that working through the red tape required to connect to the grid was also a significant burden on the development.
“Everyone wants green energy, so long as it is not next to them,” said Vincent Tana, who emphasised that the turbines the group had bought were very small and quiet compared to existing facilities operating in the area.
