Experience
Our experience
The energy transition is reshaping how we plan, build and connect generation assets. We have contributed to a wide range of renewable and conventional energy projects, including wind farms, solar installations and power distribution infrastructure. Our work covers the full engineering lifecycle, and we coordinate with landowners, network operators and construction contractors to keep programmes moving.
Wind and solar
For utility-scale wind and solar projects we typically lead the civil and structural engineering scope. We produce the designs and documentation needed to move a project from consent through to construction, and we stay involved during construction to resolve the inevitable site queries.
Turbine foundation and transformer plinth design
Internal roads, hardstands and drainage
Geotechnical investigation and assessment
3D visualisation and buildability reviews
Cranage and heavy-lift studies
Condition assessments of existing assets
Construction-phase technical support
Power distribution and hydrogen
Beyond generation, we work on the supporting infrastructure that connects new energy sources to the network. That includes substations and the decommissioning of legacy assets as they are retired. We are also building capability in hydrogen and decarbonisation projects, where the civil and structural scope often overlaps with process plant engineering.
Substation civil and structural design
Decommissioning and demolition planning
What this work involves
Generation assets are civil and structural projects wearing an energy label. A wind farm is roads, hardstands, drainage and foundations across difficult terrain; a solar installation is earthworks, piling and cable routes; a substation is a structure with unusually specific tolerances. The energy expertise matters, but the programme is usually won or lost on the ground engineering.
We cover the civil and structural scope from feasibility through consenting and detailed design into construction support, including turbine foundation and transformer plinth design, internal roads and hardstands, geotechnical investigation across extended and often steep sites, cranage and heavy-lift studies, buildability review, and the condition assessment and decommissioning of legacy assets as they are retired.
Turbine foundation and transformer plinth design
Internal roads, hardstands, drainage and earthworks
Geotechnical investigation and assessment across extended sites
Cranage, heavy-lift and buildability studies
Substation civil and structural design
Condition assessment, decommissioning and demolition planning
How we approach it
Energy projects run to funding and connection milestones that do not move, so the useful thing a consultant can offer is not a better design so much as a design delivered when the programme needs it, with the site queries answered while the crew is still there. We plan investigation around access and weather windows rather than around the ideal drilling programme, resolve buildability before it becomes a variation, and stay available through construction. Where we are building capability rather than repeating it, we say so.
Recent Projects
Project Experience across our energy work.
Harapaki Wind Farm Geotechnical Assessments
Meridian Energy
Te Pohue, Hawke's Bay
Risk-based geotechnical assessment for the 43-turbine Harapaki Wind Farm addressing complex geology and topography, optimising cut-and-fill for bulk earthworks design.
Taihape Central Wind Farm Investigations
Taihape
LDE undertook geotechnical investigations for the proposed wind farm, including a large switchyard site and connecting pylon foundations. We delivered the detailed investigation report within tight timeframes to enable the client to meet established milestones.
Yandin Wind Farm
Yandin, Australia
Playing a major part in Australia’s quest to increase the supply of renewable energy to our communities, Yandin Wind Farm will create enough power for approximately 200,000 households across Western Australia each year.
Warradarge Wind Farm
Warradarge, Australia
WGA completed the structural and civil design, including construction support for the Warradarge Wind Farm project in Western Australia for Decmil Australia. The project is a 180MW wind farm consisting of 51 Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) and included approximately 42 km’s of…
Synergy Kwinana Power Station
Kwinana, Australia
WGA undertook engineering review and recommendations to ensure that conveyor fells were carried out safely and as intended.
SA Water Solar Farms
Australia
WGA is providing engineering services for the design of solar farms as part of SA Water’s Zero Cost Energy Future program. SA Water is the provider of water and sewerage services to over 1.7 million customers in South Australia. The transportation and treatment of water and…
Power Plant Ammonia Dilution Facility
Australia
The Ammonia Dilution Facility is an initiative aimed at improving the ammonia distribution system at the Power Station. This project involved relocating and redesigning the existing ammonia dilution and distribution system to a new facility capable of further diluting aqueous…
Post Earthquake Assessments
Papua New Guinea
To determine the extent of the impact from a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, Oil Search engaged WGA to undertake civil and structural assessments across multiple sites within Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands Province.
Port Augusta Power Station Demolition
Port Augusta, Australia
WGA undertook an engineering review of demolition planning methodologies, detailed design of demolition temporary works, pull felling analysis, geotechnical design and seawall remediation.
Penneshaw Community Wastewater Management Scheme
Penneshaw, Australia
The $5.5million Community Wastewater Management Scheme in Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island Provides a number of environmental, public health and economic benefits to the community as the township is no longer reliant on on-site effluent disposal.
Limestone Coast Hydrogen Hub Feasibility Study - LCH2
Millicent, Australia
The Limestone Coast Hydrogen Hub by entX, is set to transform South Australia’s industrial landscape. The unique Green Hydrogen Hub is co-located on the site of the largest natural gas user in the South-East, the Millicent Mill operated by Kimberly-Clark Australia.
Jundee Windfarm
Jundee, Australia
Northern Star Resources‘ Jundee gold mine is an underground mining operation located in the Northern Goldfields region in Western Australia, approximately 520km north of Kalgoorlie. In collaboration with Zenith Energy, WGA provided civil, structural, and geotechnical…