Windlab was honoured on 26 November as a finalist in the Infrastructure and Construction category of the 51st Australian Export Awards at a gala dinner at the National Gallery of Victoria attended by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Trade Minister Andrew Robb and Governor Alex Chernov of Victoria.
This award category recognises outstanding contributions by an Australian company to an international project or projects involving infrastructure, engineering and construction services and/or products.
Windlab’s international business activity has grown markedly over the past 3 years. Today nearly half of all of its employees are based overseas. Windlab’s portfolio of wind energy projects has grown to more than 7,000MW of potential electricity generation on three continents. A significant majority of the more than 50 wind energy projects being developed by Windlab are in international markets.
Dr Nathan Steggel, co-founder and General Manager Operations at Windlab stated, “We were a national finalist in this category for our two projects under construction in South Africa. The history of these projects can be traced back thirteen years to the original MRET legislation enacted under John Howard. That legislation spawned the renewables industry in Australia including Windlab and it inspired Windlab’s founders to develop our world-leading WindScape wind prospecting technology. WindScape has been used to find many projects across the globe including Collgar that supplies around 4% of Western Australia’s electricity demand. In South Africa alone, our advanced project pipeline is equivalent to twenty Collgars.”
Dr Steggel added, “Wind today supplies around twenty-five percent of electrical needs in the State of South Australia, wholesale pricing has not risen in that State but emissions have dropped dramatically, predominantly due to the large levels of wind now on South Australia’s networks. We therefore encourage the Federal Government to maintain and enhance this important Howard era policy mechanism. It provided the impetus for Windlab to be one of Australia’s most successful exporters and we expect to be supplying much needed clean electricity to many parts of sub-Saharan Africa as a result.”