Whether onshore or offshore, wind farms hold immense promise as renewable energy sources. However, to unlock this potential, accurate wind resource assessments during the development phase are crucial. That’s why careful planning and preparation are vital before these farms can take shape. 

Evaluating a site for a wind farm requires a thorough feasibility study to assess its potential for harnessing wind energy effectively for electricity generation. Part of this process involves installing meteorological masts, also known as ‘met’ masts. These masts gather crucial data by monitoring wind and weather conditions at different heights above the ground. This data is vital for wind farm developers to accurately determine wind speeds, direction, and other weather parameters at the site, which can be challenging to predict. Wind data sets, recorded over a year or two, are essential for these projects to reliably estimate the expected energy output.

Met masts key to planning Northern Tablelands Wind Farm

In planning for a proposed Northern Tablelands Wind Farm site in regional NSW, we recently installed two meteorological masts to assess the site’s wind potential. This project site spans 7,586 hectares across the Warrane property, located 18 km northwest of Armidale within the NSW New England Renewable Energy Zone, with the site boasting a high-quality wind resource — and offering several grid connection options — making it very appealing for a wind energy development. 

Each of the meteorological masts installed at Warrane stand at 110 meters tall and are spaced 3.5 kilometres apart. These lattice structures are strategically positioned to collect data from the site, ensuring thorough assessment of wind and other weather conditions across the entire potential wind farm area. Equipped with instruments at different heights, they gather comprehensive data crucial for understanding wind patterns and variability.  

Monitoring wind at different heights gives us a wind profile that helps estimate wind speeds higher than those measured directly at the mast. Monitoring wind direction is equally crucial as it guides turbine placement and spacing across the project area. 
 
Wind turbine manufacturers can develop different models and classes suited to different weather conditions. In areas with lower wind speeds, turbines have larger blades to capture maximum energy across the aerodynamic surface. Conversely, sites with higher wind-speeds typically require smaller blades for greater efficiency in harnessing strong, steady winds. Therefore, the data collected from the met masts guides the selection of turbines and blades best suited to the site’s wind characteristics.

Met masts are kept in place for at least 18 months, sometimes up to 60 months, to collect solid data, reduce uncertainties, ensure project feasibility, and account for weather, seasonal changes, and maintenance. However, they’re not the sole method used for wind resource assessment. We’re also employing Lidar technology – an optical wind measurement technique. Lidar, short for ‘light detection and ranging,’ uses laser pulses to remotely detect wind conditions, offering broader coverage and flexibility compared to fixed met masts. Unlike met masts, Lidar units are portable and can be moved around the project area to gather data, which helps even more in figuring out the overall feasibility of the project. 

Each method – Lidar and met masts – can be used in tandem to provide a comprehensive understanding of the wind conditions at a wind farm site. Given the substantial investment required for wind-energy projects, how we measure wind resources can significantly impact the success of these projects. Combining modern tools like Lidar with traditional meteorological masts ensures we get a thorough and accurate assessment. This approach not only boosts energy production by developing a wind farm suited to specific weather and site conditions, but also makes renewable energy investments more sustainable and reliable in the long run.

Did you know? Meteorological masts aren’t just for wind farms. They’re also key at airports and for general weather forecasting, climate research, and studying tough-to-reach places. They give us crucial data that helps make flights safer, improves weather predictions, and supports all sorts of meteorological work.

The post What are met masts and how do they work? appeared first on The Origin Blog.

Ahead of the Origin Australian Diamonds’ first appearance for 2024 in the Netball Nations Cup this Sunday, Origin has re-signed as the team’s official naming rights partner, with branding to feature across all playing and training uniforms. 

Origin will also extend its support at the top tier of domestic competition, continuing as a major partner of the Suncorp Super Netball League. 

The partnership first launched in 2020, with Origin and Netball Australia working together to help grow the number one team sport for women and girls in Australia from the grassroots level through to the elite level. 

Netball Australia Interim CEO Stacey West thanked Origin for their strong ongoing support for the sport which has more than one million participants.  

“Together with Origin, we will continue to grow the sport of netball in Australia from the grassroots through to our Origin Australian Diamonds,” West said.  

“The Origin Australian Diamonds have won every major tournament they’ve played in the past two-and-a-half years, including being crowned Commonwealth Games gold medallists and World Champions and with the ongoing support of Origin will continue to make Australia proud.’’ 

Origin Australian Diamonds defender Joanna Weston was excited to announce the partnership would enter a fifth year.  

“It’s really exciting to have Origin re-sign as our naming rights partner,” Weston said.  

“We’ve been incredibly lucky to have had Origin’s support for the past four years and we wouldn’t be on the court without them.” 

Origin’s General Manager of Marketing, Catherine Anderson, said: “We’re delighted to be extending our partnership with Netball Australia and continuing our support of the world’s best netball team, the Origin Australian Diamonds, and the world’s premier domestic competition.”  

“Over the past four years, we’ve built a strong relationship with Netball Australia, supporting one of Australia’s most-loved sports at all levels.”   

“The Origin Australian Diamonds have enjoyed significant success on the court through this period, as well as being excellent role models within the community. We’re excited to continue to help grow netball in Australia and work together to create good change in sport.”  

The world number-one ranked Origin Australian Diamonds will begin the Netball Nations Cup against New Zealand in London this Sunday, before taking on England and for the first time in history Uganda.  

The post Extending our partnership with Netball Australia appeared first on The Origin Blog.

As part of Origin 360 EV’s commitment to cleaner transportation, the company is offering fleet and subscription customers the opportunity to experience the new BMW i4 eDrive35 electric vehicle (EV) ahead of its official market release in February 2024.  

Chau Le, General Manager of Origin 360 EV, said, “Our partnership with BMW for early access to the i4 eDrive35 is a reflection of our continued commitment to helping Australian businesses and their employees transition to cleaner mobility. We’re thrilled to offer this unique opportunity this summer.”  

EV subscription with salary packaging

With the holiday season fast approaching, Origin 360 EV has launched a Subscribe for Summer campaign, catering to organisations seeking an all-inclusive EV work benefit for their employees. The EV subscription salary packaging benefit features no lock-in contracts, flexible month-to-month plans, employee cost-saving advantages and, most enticingly, exclusive access to the BMW i4 eDrive35 this summer.   

“Now is the ideal time for companies to offer their employees an EV salary sacrifice benefit. Rising petrol prices, government subsidies, and a wide range of available models and brands make electric vehicles an appealing option. Furthermore, if you chose to work with Origin, we do all the heavy lifting. We manage everything, making it easy for businesses to deliver the EV employee perk to their staff,” said Chau.  

Fleet or Flexible EV subscription for businesses

Early access to the BMW i4 eDrive35 is also available on the newly launched EV Flex program – an all-inclusive and cost-effective electric vehicle business subscription plan. This comprehensive solution is suitable for both large corporations exploring EV integration into their fleets or smaller businesses aiming to lower their emissions.  

Chau highlighted “All EVs are different and assessing whether a vehicle meets a business’s needs often requires spending time in it. The beauty of the Origin 360 EV Flex Plan is the flexibility to swap if the current EV selected isn’t suitable.” 

BMW i4 eDrive35

The new BMW i4 eDrive35 is renowned for its blend of luxury and performance. Featuring fifth-generation BMW eDrive technology, the power system includes a single motor that drives the rear wheels and develops 210kW and peak torque of 400Nm. This aids in the new i4 accelerating from zero to 100km/h in only six seconds with a driving range of up to 430km.  

Origin 360 EV takes pride in pioneering accessibility, convenience, and cost-effectiveness in the transition to electric vehicles. By providing early access to the BMW i4 eDrive35 and an array of lower emissions transport solutions, Origin 360 EV is helping power Australians forward on their EV journey.  

To find out more about the Origin 360 EV Subscribe for Summer early access opportunity to the BMW i4 eDrive35, please visit origin.com.au/electric-vehicles/subscriptions  

This article was originally published by Fleet Auto News.

The post Origin announces early access to BMW i4 eDrive35 appeared first on The Origin Blog.

With data and analytics increasingly driving energy (and empowering customers with cleaner and smarter solutions) and energy companies like Origin branching out into areas such as broadband and EVs, we’re encouraging start-ups and innovators from the energy sector, and beyond, to come forward with new ideas and solutions for customers.

As one of Australia’s leading energy companies, with 4.2 million customer accounts, working with us is a unique opportunity to launch your idea on a mass market scale.

Supporting Originate is a new partnership with Australian innovation hub Stone & Chalk, which brings start-ups together with potential corporate partners, investors and mentors and will allow us to look beyond energy and apply ideas from other verticals to our own use cases.

“We have a long track record working with startups both in Australia and internationally, helping to foster ideas that capitalise on growing trends including the convergence of data and energy, growth in renewables, storage and green fuels,”

Tony Lucas, Origin’s Executive General Manager, Future Energy & Technology.

“Over the past three years, we’ve reviewed more than 2,500 start-ups and ideas, and know what we are looking for in terms of ideas that we can nurture and help to take that crucial next step.

“We’re a founding member of the global Free Electrons start-up accelerator program and have already commercialised ideas such as Origin Spike – our gamified demand response program developed with US start-up OhmConnect.

“Australia has a rich heritage in innovation, producing world-changing technology such as Wi-Fi, ultrasound and cochlear implants – and more recently producing world leading innovators in software and fintech. We want to tap into the local tech community which we’re confident has ideas on how to make energy easier, smarter and cleaner for our customers.

“Originate and our collaboration with Stone & Chalk give start-ups the opportunity to tap into the knowledge of our senior executives and develop their ideas.”

Stone & Chalk General Manager for Sydney, Marie-Anne Lampotang said, “The partnership between Origin and Stone & Chalk is a fantastic opportunity for both organisations to help shape the future of energy delivery in Australia. We will be connecting our start-ups that offer a range of innovative solutions that can help innovate across Origin Energy’s technology stack.

“Stone & Chalk is focused on shaping the future of emerging tech sectors by catalysing the commercial success across our impact network and helping them on the next stage of their journey to scale their businesses. Origin’s Originate program may be the accelerator that boosts one of our start-ups into its next stage of growth and we are excited to be partnering with them.”

Are you a startup or business with a bright idea?

The post Origin launches Originate to hunt out Australia’s new energy ideas appeared first on The Origin Blog.

Origin joins a small number of leading organisations providing new starters with access to paid parental leave by removing its 12-month qualifying period. Plus, Origin’s parental leave can now be taken within 24 months of the arrival of the child, includes 20 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers, and four weeks paid leave for secondary carers.

The new parental leave policy comes into effect from 1 July 2019, and aims to improve workplace retention, flexibility and equality by providing greater support to all new Origin parents.

The increased timeframe will allow more secondary carers to become primary carers, and provide additional flexibility and support for fathers to take up a primary caring role.

Origin’s new policy supports all family types, including same sex parents, and includes birth, adoption, surrogacy and permanent fostering. There is also increased flexibility around combining parental leave with other types of leave, such as annual or long-service leave. 

With almost half of all primary carers returning to work in a flexible arrangement, Origin provides ‘keep in touch days’ and free access to the Grace Papers website and programs to help working parents navigate family and career. Flexible Parental Leave also allows new parents to work part-time during parental leave.

Origin is proud to be named a 2018-19 ‘Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Employer of Choice for Gender Equality’ – a position we’ve held for 11 years. We were the first energy company in Australia to provide dedicated breastfeeding facilities at regional offices and remote Queensland operating sites, and we support all our employees to embrace flexible working options through our All Roles Flex program.

Did you know?

· In 2016-17, 4.7% of Australian employees who took primary carer’s leave were men. 

· The average length of primary carers leave at Origin is 37 weeks. The percentage of employees taking up paid secondary carer responsibilities is dominated by fathers taking an average of 19 days.

The post A bundle of joy and a bundle of benefits for new Origin parents appeared first on The Origin Blog.

Our businesses performed solidly during the half, delivering a statutory profit of $796 million. This reflected higher oil linked revenues in Australia Pacific LNG, a stable performance in our Energy Markets business, and lower financing costs.

While delivering a strong shareholder result, we continued to focus on measures to make energy more affordable for our customers, being first in the market to announce flat or falling prices from 1 July for all our customers and announcing further discounts from 1 January for concession customers on standing rates.

Our power stations played a key role in keeping the lights on and putting downward pressure on prices. The impact of greater competition and discounting in our retail business has impacted on earnings, but we believe that the right thing is putting our customers first.

We continued to work steadily towards our emissions reduction target, adding more than 300 megawatts of new solar capacity to our portfolio over the past six months. By 2020, we will have added another 738 megawatts of new renewable energy, which means in just a few years, renewables will have grown from 10 per cent of our portfolio to 25 per cent.

In our gas business, APLNG performed strongly and when combined with higher realised commodity prices, delivered strong cash flows back to Origin. More than 12 months ago, we set out to make our gas operations more competitive and are on track to meet our June 2019 run rate target. We are looking forward to getting back on the ground in the Beetaloo basin during the dry season this year and completing our exploration commitments to more fully understand the opportunity.

Having materially reduced debt, I am delighted to announce the reinstatement of dividends with a fully franked interim dividend. We are also now in a position to pursue the right strategic opportunities, such as our recent acquisition of OC Energy.

I’m really looking forward to this next phase, as we continue to position Origin to support the transition to a cleaner energy future and supporting our customers to do the same.

Green Energy from renewable sources

Reduce your impact on the environment by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions

The post Origin Half Year Results 2019 appeared first on The Origin Blog.

The Charter is a pledge from all participating energy companies to publicly report on how they are all doing against agreed customer commitments. Importantly, The Energy Charter is supported by Energy Consumers Australia – the peak group representing retail customers.

The Charter sets out five clear principles the energy industry has committed to – from putting downward pressure on prices and ensuring reliability and sustainability, to improving the customer experience and supporting those most vulnerable among us. The Charter sets a high standard, but one we know customers expect us to meet.

While this is an industry-wide initiative, the principles of The Energy Charter reflect Origin’s over-riding purpose of getting energy right for our customers, communities and planet, and will help us be a true customer champion.

Each year, signatories to The Charter will report on how they are living up to the principles, with progress assessed by an independent accountability panel. The panel, which will include consumer and industry representatives, will help customers and the energy businesses who serve them by identifying good performance and providing guidance on where the industry can improve.

CEO Frank Calabria said: “This Charter brings together, for the first time, the energy sector. The Charter will ultimately be of greatest benefit to consumers as it will play a role making energy simpler, easier and more affordable for them”.

The Energy Charter will play a key role in helping Origin serve our customers even better. To learn more about the charter visit The Energy Charter homepage.

The post Origin joins Energy Charter appeared first on The Origin Blog.