Throughout the first half of 2022, AAL Shipping operated a series of shipments between China and Australia, enabling the Dulacca wind farm in Queensland to reach a major milestone, installation of the last turbine. The project developer, Australia’s renewable energy player, RES Australia, recently installed the last of the 181 MW project’s 43 turbines.  

The V150-4.2MW wind turbines, supplied and installed by Vestas and carried by AAL, are said to be the tallest installed in Australia, at nearly 250 metres from base to tip. RES says construction of the project is expected to be completed in the second half of 2023.

Between February and July 2022, AAL operated a series of shipments between China and Brisbane to transport heavy lift and project cargo components for the Dulacca wind farm. Employed by multiple global logistics companies, AAL’s shipments comprised all 43 Vestas wind turbines (towers and blades), transformers, electrical cables and other – a total of close to 375,000 freight tonnes (FRT) of cargo.

Andrew Mangan, Chartering Manager at AAL commented, “The shipments into Brisbane for Dulacca were loaded in several Chinese ports including Tianjin, Taicang and Yangzhou and we worked with multiple logistics companies in their execution, each with their own specific timeline and cargo requirements. We therefore utilised two different vessel classes on the project, our ‘mega-size’ 31,000 deadweight (DWT) A-Class and the more compact 19,000 DWT S-Class – to manage both large and small shipment sizes with as much efficiency and economy of scale for our customers as possible.”

Chris Yabsley, Chartering Manager at AAL Australia, added, “The wind farm will generate enough clean energy to power 124,000 homes and inject over A$400 million ($271 million) into the local economy. The award of this project was a welcome recognition of AAL’s long-standing ‘Asia – Australia’ trade lane and expertise, which has served customers with a regular scheduled service for over 27 years. We are proud to be part of such an important local project and help to expand the use of sustainable green energy solutions in the country.”