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The developer of a large wind farm proposed off Victoria’s coast says the project could be operational in the next six years if state and federal governments draft efficient regulations for the fledgling industry and co-ordinate access to the grid.
Just days after the Albanese government began consultations on permitting wind projects in the waters off Victoria’s Gippsland region, Scotland-based Flotation Energy said it had determined its 1.5-gigawatt Seadragon wind project may be able to start supplying clean power sooner than the 2030 start date it had originally targeted.
Laws allowing offshore wind projects were put through parliament only last year and came into force in June.
If it proceeds, it will be one of the first offshore wind farms built in Australia.
Flotation Energy’s Australian managing director Tim Sawyer will use a speech on Thursday to declare that the company is “ready to deliver” on an expected $6 billion investment over the life of the Seadragon project, and will call on government leaders to take lessons from established offshore wind industries elsewhere in the world.
“We need the federal and state governments to work together to deliver a streamlined regulatory framework and staff up their departments to deal with this, so we can get on with the job of a strong offshore wind industry Australia,” Sawyer will tell the Gippsland New Energy Conference.
“Co-ordinated and timely access to the grid is also a key issue and needs to be a policy focus, with port infrastructure a key enabler.”
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The call from Flotation Energy, which has 3 gigawatts of deep-water wind projects in the United Kingdom, comes as an Australian offshore wind industry edges closer to becoming reality following the passage of long-delayed laws allowing energy projects to be built and operated in Commonwealth waters.
One of the most advanced of Australia’s offshore energy proposals is the 2.2-gigawatt Star of the South wind farm, which is also located in Victoria’s Bass Strait. Another is the Sun Cable underwater transmission line, backed by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and iron ore magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, which aims to export solar power from the Northern Territory to Singapore.