NSW wind farm defies high-profile critics

Australia's green bank says it will be needed more than ever to help overhaul the electricity grid.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has invested $1.5 billion in wind farms over the past 10 years, including one off the Hume Highway near Canberra that was officially opened on Tuesday.

"Our role continues to evolve as a renewable energy financier," CEFC chief executive Ian Learmonth said at the opening ceremony.

"We're needed, maybe more than ever, as we try to reach, as a country, 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

"That's a big task, and needs the leadership of many."

The Collector Wind Farm, backed by supply deals with Aldi supermarkets and energy utility Iberdrola, is the largest wind farm RATCH-Australia has built in this country.

The green energy from Collector is expected to save 320,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, or the equivalent of taking 120,000 combustion engine cars off the road, by displacing coal-fired power.

The 226.8 megawatt project was once slammed by local Liberal MP Angus Taylor, a former federal energy minister, as being part of an "economically unviable" industry that relied on massive subsidies.

Granted permission by energy market operators last year to become fully operational, the 54 Vestas turbines can produce enough to power 80,000 homes.

The wind farm employed more than 150 people during construction and is now managed by 10 full-time staff.

But the project near Lake George in NSW was scaled back from an initial proposal for 63 turbines after local opposition led by Friends of Collector founders Rodd Pahl and Tony Hodgson, who were concerned it would damage their view and health. 

Other landowners say they are "drinking silver" from the revenue stream, and they don't mind the view.

"It's like watching fish in a fish tank," farmer Ron Ryan told AAP.

The CEFC helped the project get off the ground as its first lender, and remains an important partner for RATCH-Australia.

As sole debt financier in 2019, the CEFC backed the wind farm before it secured energy off-take contracts. 

Other banks have since provided financing, which frees up capital for the corporation to back new renewable projects.

Mr Learmonth said it was another example of their "bridge to contracting" finance strategy, which involves taking a calculated risk on a worthy project.

"It takes brave and innovative investors like RATCH to build out a project like this," he said.

"Now they can see the fruits of their labour because nearly 80 per cent of the power has been contracted to Aldi and to Iberdrola Group."

Ross Rolfe, executive chair at Iberdrola Australia, said the Collector Wind Farm saw project developers work closely with them to provide customers with competitively priced green electricity, and help accelerate the renewable energy transition.

Aldi Australia spokesman Daniel Baker said the power purchase agreements meant Aldi will become the first supermarket in the country to have all stores, warehouses and offices powered using only renewable electricity sources.

Backed by CEFC and international lenders, RATCH-Australia is also building the Mount Emerald Wind Farm in far north Queensland and Collinsville Solar Farm in central Queensland.