Wind tower manufacturer takes its $150m business elsewhere, blames Illawarra's roads

Victorian-based Keppel Prince Engineering was keen to create a $150 million greenfield wind tower manufacturing plant at Port Kembla. It would have employed 200 people and sourced 46,000 tonne of steel plate annually.

Executives visited the Illawarra, but found overpasses across the Illawarra's roads were too low to allow wind towers - some up to six metres in diameter - to pass by underneath.

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"We were looking seriously at the opportunity to build wind towers at Port Kembla, on the steelworks site," KPE general manager Dan McKinna said.

"The inability to move those larger sections out of Port Kembla was one of the big negatives that we had in terms of locating a facility there."

University Avenue overpass, which has a clearance of 4.9m, is one example; and while an alternative trucking route along Corrimal and Bourke streets is under consideration by NSW Ports and government bodies, Mr McKinna doubts it would be approved.

"Transport for NSW will not approve that route because of the interface with the public. You can imagine something that's 5.5m in diameter sitting on a truck travelling down the road, nothing else is going down the road at that time," he said.

While truck movements would occur in non-peak hour times overnight, road noise and flashing lights from escort vehicles would have a negative impact on residents in the area.

"You've got a significant amount of people living along there," he said.

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"Newcastle is better, Newcastle gets a free kick. Up to about 5.9m in diameter can get out of Newcastle without any issues," Mr McKinnna said.

"Any of the oversized tower sections they would go to Newcastle, you wouldn't bother with Port Kembla."

Mr McKinna has no doubt it will be an economic loss for the Illawarra, with around 30 per cent of wind tower sections greater than five metres in diameter.

NSW Ports CEO Marika Calfas said alternate routes for wind tower components are being considered.

"There's further investigations to be done, and work with the Transport Department, to see what we can do," she said during an ABC interview on August 17.

Ms Calfas declined to confirm if wind tower components would be trucked through Fairy Meadow, but confirmed consultants are looking at taking oversize parts via Bourke Street and Corrimal Street, then on to the motorway.

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"Not all components would have to be moved along that route, it's just those components of the tower that would be higher than the current bridges," she said.

Port Kembla is handling wind farm components for Flyers Creek and Crookwell wind farms, but some wind farm components have been redirected to the Port of Newcastle.

"Wind farm componentry is handled through the AAT terminal, and that is the terminal that is currently handling all of the state's motor vehicle imports and we are having a big bumper season for car imports," Ms Calfas said.

"There is always going to be a natural limitation to what you can actually handle."

The other issue, Mr McKinna said is the lack of government support means cheaper tower components are imported from China or Vietnam to be used in renewable energy zones.

The benefits of manufacturing in Australia and the employment it would create far outweigh the very small cost burden, he said

"If you went to a consumer and said 'by the way, you're currently paying 35 cents, if I increase that to 35.25 and we could have manufacturing completed in Australia', I reckon most people would say, 'let's just do it'," Mr McKinna said.

"That's literally what 0.25 per cent on your power bill over the years might be $4 a year."

The higher you go up, the better the wind resource, with some wind towers now 150 metres high.

"The winds stronger the higher we go," Mr McKinnna said. "As the turbines are getting taller, they're also getting larger in diameter."

Ms Calfas said all ports across the country are facing challenges due to components.

"As the wind towers get larger and larger, and the blades get longer and longer to generate more energy out of the same tower, they're all facing constraints," she said.

"At the end of the day, it's about looking at what is the best way to deal with those constraints."

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