Wollongong’s wind era powers up despite blowback from opponents

Opponents of the newly declared Illawarra offshore wind zone have vowed to maintain their opposition despite Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s announcement on Saturday morning that the enormous scheme would go ahead, smaller and further from shore than earlier proposed.

Alex O’Brien of the community action group Responsible Future said the organisation was not reassured by Bowen’s decision that the zone would be shrunk by a third to 1022 square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, from Wombarra in the north to Kiama in the south, and pushed to 20 kilometres offshore rather than 10.

Offshore wind has a big head start in northern Europe but is in its infancy in Australia.Credit:

Making the announcement at BlueScope Steel, Bowen said he had listened to concerns about the potential visual impact of turbines that could tower 260 metres above the water. “At 20 kilometres offshore, you won’t see those turbines on most days,” he said.

In its new form, the zone could produce just under 3 gigawatts of power, or enough energy to provide power to 1.8 million homes once developed, Bowen said.

He said developers could begin the process of making licence applications from Monday.

“Today is important, but in many ways, it is the beginning. These licence applications will involve community consultation, there will need to be environmental approvals for every particular project,” he said.

He said the successful projects would also need to demonstrate that First Nations views had been taken into account and how the project would benefit the community.

“So we are not going to see wind turbines next week, next month or next year, there is a long way to go.”

The deployment of wind energy is critical to Labor’s plans to meet Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets, but it has been slowed by regulatory delays and growing opposition from some community groups and Coalition MPs.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s declaration that he would not commit to a 2030 Paris Agreement target for Australia of reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 because he did not believe it could be met has been seen as a signal that the next election would be fought in part on climate.

Bowen said any wind developments built off the Illawarra coast would contribute to 2035 emissions targets, and help sustain 9000 jobs at BlueScope Steel in Port Kembla, as well as create 1700 jobs in construction and 900 in ongoing operations.

The wind zone has won the support of several community groups, Wollongong City Council, the University of Wollongong, unions and environmental organisations. Last week, groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace Australia, the Wilderness Society, Sea Shepherd Australia and World Wildlife Foundation Australia signed an open letter supporting the deployment of well-sited renewables over nuclear for Australia’s energy future.

David Scott, BlueScope’s general manager of manufacturing, said the power generated by the project would be crucial for the company’s efforts to decarbonise its steelmaking.

Rewiring Australia founder Saul Griffith, a Wollongong resident who has advised Australian governments and the Biden administration on renewables and electrification, welcomed the announcement, saying the region should be allowed to benefit from the manufacturing of components and a per-kilowatt community benefit contribution.

But O’Brien said the Illawarra chapter of Responsible Future did not believe that the local community had been properly consulted or would benefit sufficiently from a project it feared could have a severe impact on the local environment and its tourism industry.

Wollongong was no longer the industrial city it had once been, he said.

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