Size of Victoria’s second offshore wind zone slashed to a fifth

The size of Victoria’s second offshore wind zone has been slashed by as much as 80 per cent amid concerns about whales and other marine wildlife.

The Albanese government’s decision, which follows months of consultations with environmental and community groups, will raise questions about whether Victoria can meet its ambitious renewable energy targets.

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has dramatically reduced the size of the Southern Ocean’s offshore wind zone. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen will on Wednesday reveal the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone, originally meant to span 5132 square kilometres from the end of the Great Ocean Road to Port MacDonnell in South Australia, will instead be a fifth of its proposed size.

The final zone will sit about 15 to 20 kilometres off the coast of Warrnambool and could generate 2.9 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy – the equivalent of keeping the lights on in more than 2 million homes.

But it’s a far cry from the 14.6GW originally trumpeted by Bowen, who last year said the larger zone would generate enough electricity to power 8.4 million homes.

The scaled-back area responds to pushback from environmental groups, which had urged the Commonwealth to avoid marine life hotspots, particularly around the Bonney Upwelling, which lies between Portland in Victoria and Robe in South Australia. Nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean is funnelled to the surface in this region, making it an ideal feeding area for whales.

The Victorian National Parks Association, in its government submission, called for this area to be excised from the proposed wind zone.

“Many threatened marine life depend on this significant stretch of coastline for their survival. It is important to identify these values early in the process to avoid any infrastructure going in these areas,” the association’s submission said.

The Bonney Upwelling is an important habitat not only for blue, pygmy blue and southern right whales but also for albatross, petrels and many fish species.

However, groups such as Greenpeace and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have still backed the rollout of large-scale renewable energy, including offshore wind, as a necessary measure to drive down fossil fuel emissions and reduce global warming.

While the AMCS has called for critical marine habitats to be left untouched, the organisation ultimately backed the plan to develop offshore wind.

“Burning coal and gas is harming the ocean, driving marine heatwaves,” AMCS said in its submission. “To protect our oceans and their extraordinary wildlife, we need to stop generating our electricity through burning coal and gas, stop new fossil fuel developments, and drive renewable energy generation.”

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) is a strong backer of offshore wind, both for the jobs large-scale projects generate during construction and for the potential to support ongoing employment through the provision of low-cost electricity.

In its government submission, the union said the Southern Ocean project could create an industrial hub around the Portland aluminium smelter, and argued offshore wind developers should be required to use local labour and suppliers.

“This area has a skilled workforce, great electricity grid connections, deep water port infrastructure, an existing high voltage substation, and strong and consistent winds that blow at times that solar power isn’t available,” the ETU’s submission said.

In a statement, Bowen said the wind zone declaration would be a major step towards Australia’s clean energy future. Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the project, which is accepting feasibility licence applications until July, would allow Victoria to reach its net-zero emissions target by 2045.

The Victorian government has also set targets of at least 2GW of offshore wind capacity by 2032, 4GW by 2035 and 9GW by 2040. However, there have been political ructions over the massive energy transmission lines that would send the power generated from new offshore wind farms into northern Victoria and even NSW.

Earlier this year, Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek also rejected the state-owned Port of Hastings Corporation’s application to build a terminal to ship wind turbine parts to Western Victoria due to the project’s impact on internationally significant wetlands.

Australia’s two other established offshore wind zones are off the coast of Gippsland and the NSW Hunter region. Other zones have been proposed off the NSW Illawarra region, Tasmania, and Bunbury in Western Australia.

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