Australian wind farms a drawcard for green energy heavyweights

Japanese-owned wind power developer Flotation Energy has taken the next step to building Australia’s first offshore wind farm on the Bass Strait, as some of the world’s biggest renewable companies await an imminent decision on licensing.

Australia has earmarked offshore wind as central to the transition from fossil fuels.Credit: Getty

Flotation Energy is one of 37 companies vying for a feasibility licence to develop in Victoria after the Albanese government last year declared the ocean bed 20 kilometres off the coast of Gippsland’s seaside town of Golden Beach as the country’s first designated zone for offshore wind generators.

Earlier this year, Flotation started detailed environmental surveys in Bass Strait, monitoring movements of whales, dolphins, sharks, seals and birds, before gaining major project status on Thursday. The win will let the company accelerate its ability to get project approvals and garner support from the federal government.

The company wants to build a wind farm up to 300 metres tall in Bass Strait, which on a clear day could be seen from the coast, and start supplying the 1.5 gigawatts of clean energy generated into the eastern seaboard’s electricity grid by 2030.

If it goes ahead, the proposed $6.5 billion Seadragon wind farm’s 150 fixed-platform turbines and network of subsea cables will power about 1 million homes.

Offshore wind is one of the world’s fastest-growing green energy sectors. Supporters say ocean-based turbines harvest stronger and more consistent winds and face fewer objections from communities worried about their visual and environmental impacts.

Gippsland’s wind ventures will need to coexist with fishing, oil, gas and carbon capture and storage projects.

Companies that gain a licence still face numerous environmental and planning hurdles before they can start developing.

They must complete environmental surveys and seabed geophysical and geotechnical investigations, measure wind strength, design the wind farm and consult local communities before putting a single pole in the water, Carolyn Sanders, Flotation’s head of Australian operations, said.

“Offshore wind is proven, it’s ready to go now, has community and industry support in the region, and delivers both retention and creation of new ongoing jobs,” she said.

Sanders acknowledged her project’s turbines might be visible from the coast. “If it’s a bright clear day, you will see them in the distance,” she said. “But if it’s a hazy or overcast day, they kind of melt into the background.”

Flotation, owned by utilities giant Tokyo Electric Power Company, and a host of other renewables companies – among them Danish multinational Ørsted, Spanish wind giant Iberdrola and Macquarie Group’s Corio Generation – is waiting to hear if it is one of a handful of companies picked by the federal government to develop the 10-gigawatt Gippsland zone.

The decision to award about five feasibility licences is imminent.

A Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesperson said: “The government is carefully considering feasibility licence applications and will make assessments based on their merit for energy supply and the local industry. It is anticipated a decision on these applications will be made in the coming months.”

About 20 per cent of Victoria’s total power needs, about two gigawatts, is expected to come from offshore wind by 2032. That will double to four gigawatts by 2035 and up to nine gigawatts by 2040.

Seadragon and a proposed 2.2 gigawatt wind farm backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure partners and Australian superannuation fund Cbus, called Star of the South (which also has major project status), are the two most advanced offshore wind farms planned for the area.

The designated waters off Gippsland are considered world-class for untapped wind power as they have relatively shallow sea beds less than 60 metres deep that are suited to fixed turbines, with nearby port facilities in Hastings to service construction and ongoing operations.

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