Copenhagen Energy offshore wind project blown away

Copenhagen Energy was one of the first companies to put forward serious proposals for offshore wind off WA, but has given up after it was unable to secure investors.

An offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea off Denmark. Picture: AFP

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The European group behind plans for three huge offshore wind farms off the West Australian coast has quietly pulled out of Australia.

Copenhagen Energy this week formally withdrew its environmental approval application for its Midwest Offshore Wind Farm, off the coast of Kalbarri, tying up its last remaining loose end in Australia just months after it abandoned its flagship Leeuwin wind farm proposal in WA’s southwest and its planned Samphire project north of Perth.

Copenhagen was one of the first companies to put forward serious proposals for offshore wind off WA, but has given up after it was unable to secure investors to back its plans. It is now concentrating on advancing its offshore wind projects in Europe and the Philippines.

The Denmark-based company, whose chief executive had led the development of about 700 megawatts of offshore wind projects, had arrived in Australia with high hopes and big plans for WA in particular.

Its Leeuwin project, which would have had 200 wind turbines installed in commonwealth waters between Mandurah and Bunbury, was in 2023 awarded Lead Agency status by the WA government’s Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, a designation that was supposed to streamline the approvals process.

Copenhagen at the time said the endorsement showed the importance of the project to WA and its role in helping the state meet its decarbonisation targets.

But the writing appeared to be on the wall for Copenhagen in Australia after it walked away from the federal government’s feasibility licence process for WA’s southwest this year.

Two other multinational groups have put forward proposals for the same area, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen last month indicating he would likely issue licences to both groups if they could resolve overlaps in their respective projects.

The Midwest offshore wind farm officially canned this week was earmarked for more than 300,000 hectares of Commonwealth waters north of Kalbarri, a tourist town about 500km north of Perth.

It is understood Copenhagen had done little to progress the project beyond its initial environmental application and some community engagement, instead focusing the bulk of its energies on the Leeuwin project.

The area earmarked by Copenhagen for the Midwest project had not formed part of the federal government’s recent feasibility licence process.

Copenhagen’s plans had drawn some opposition from local communities, while the Coalition’s increasingly vocal stance against offshore wind had also been noted by the company.

The turbulence in WA’s offshore wind industry adds another layer of complexity to WA’s energy transition.

The WA government has committed to closing its remaining state-owned coal-fired power stations by the end of the decade, with the capacity to be filled by renewables, batteries and gas.

The Cook government’s plans do not rely on input from offshore wind, with the government understood to instead see increased onshore wind farms as a simpler and more viable option for the short term.

Asked about Copenhagen’s departure, a federal government spokeswoman acknowledged the headwinds facing the global offshore wind industry.

“Offshore wind developers are facing global challenges with high costs and supply chain uncertainty – but there still remains a high level of investment interest in Australia’s emerging offshore wind industry,” she said.

“The government is committed to working with all proponents to progress an offshore wind industry that will deliver regional jobs and lasting energy security for Australia.”

Elsewhere in Australia, another European company – Norwegian oil and gas heavyweight Equinor – is weighing up whether to push ahead with its studies on its potential 2GW Novocastrian offshore wind project off the coast of NSW.

Equinor has scaled back its global wind ambitions in the past year, closing its office in Vietnam and cancelling offshore wind projects proposed for Portugal and Spain, and halving its proposed wind investments from $10bn to $5bn.

Equinor was last month given another 90 days to consider whether to push ahead with the project.

Copenhagen Energy is in no way associated with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which recently received a pledge of more than $800m in federal production incentives to advance its own energy project near Kalbarri. That project will use solar and onshore wind to produce hydrogen and ammonia.

Copenhagen Energy did not respond to a request for comment.