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Alinta Energy and Parkwind have snagged the first feasibility licence for the Southern Ocean offshore wind zone, for their 1.2 gigawatt (GW) Spinifex project that could form a key part of powering the local smelter with renewable energy.
The federal government has awarded the licence on preliminary grounds, subject to consultation with First Nations groups before a final decision is made.
The $4 billion Spinifex wind farm will host between 50 and 75 turbines and potentially supply 10 per cent of the electricity needs of Victoria.
The Southern Zone site was chosen for its access to existing heavy duty transmission infrastructure at the Portland aluminium smelter — as opposed to the Gippsland zone which requires a significant build out to take the offshore generation to existing transmission lines.
It’s also between the ports at Portland and Geelong, which is now pitching to become the main offshore wind construction port for Victoria.
When the companies announced their tilt for a spot in the Southern Ocean zone in July, they said obtaining a feasibility licence will allow them to do detailed tests, research and consultation but they’d already put in four years of work.
“We will continue to undertake pre-licence award work such as environmental surveys for marine life, wind monitoring, and stakeholder engagement where appropriate,” said François Van Leeuw, co-CEO of Parkwind, at the time.
Given the preliminary nature of the licence news, Spinifex deputy project director Linden Blair says they are waiting on a finalised deal before commenting further.
Consultation with First Nations groups, local communities, unions and marine users will continue throughout the feasibility licence process, which provides an exclusive seven-year seabed rights to develop a project and to apply for a commercial licence to build and operate a wind farm.
The next steps for Spinifex, once it secures the final federal nod, will be to deploy floating lidar buoys to measure the wind resource in the licence area. Since 2022, Alinta has been taking measurements using two onshore lidar units with a 35km range, one at the Portland aluminium smelter and another 20kms away.
Spinifex is part of Alinta’s proposal to enable the Portland aluminium smelter, to the north-west of the site, be powered entirely by renewable energy.
Alinta CEO Jeff Dimery flagged the offshore project in 2021 in an interview on RenewEconomy’s weekly Energy Insiders podcast. The company is party to a five year deal with AGL and Origin to supply subsidised energy for the smelter due to its ownership of the Loy Yang B coal power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The smelter decarbonisation plan is backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) which kicked in a $1.5 million grant in 2022 towards assessments of the offshore wind resource and site.
Parkwind, a fully owned subsidiary of Jera Nex, which is the newly launched renewable business of Japan’s largest coal and gas-fired power plant owner, Jera, joined the project in April. It is also a majority owner of the Blue Mackerel offshore wind joint venture in the Gippsland offshore zone.
Victorian energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio says the start of licence awards in the Southern Zone, the second offshore zone around Victoria, moves the state closer to its target of 2 GW of offshore wind by 2032.
“Offshore wind will create real benefits for Victoria and Australia’s renewable energy production – creating hundreds of jobs, support for our key industries and reliable renewable energy as coal-fired power plants close,” she said in a statement.
The Southern Ocean zone, which sits at least 15-20km from Victoria’s south-west coast, is dramatically smaller than its initial iteration after being drastically pared back to one-fifth of the original area.
The zone no longer includes any waters offshore from South Australia, which was annoyed that energy generated within the zone would be connected exclusively to the Victorian power grid, and not to South Australia.
It also expressed concerns about the impact of wind farm development on fisheries industries and jobs in the area, and in particular the $187.5 million rock lobster industry, as well as marine life.
Today, however, federal energy minister Chris Bowen said the Spinifex project will support “hundreds of new, high-value jobs”.
“My decision today is a big step towards powering communities and industries across Southwest Victoria with reliable renewables delivered by an offshore wind industry,” he said.
“Offshore wind represents a huge opportunity for regional Australia, providing reliable renewables to power homes and heavy industry while creating highly skilled and well-paid jobs now and into the future.”
The original proposal comprised a 5,100km2 zone that stretched from Warrnambool in Victoria up to Port MacDonnell in South Australia, but after a couple of months of consultation it became clear there was trouble on the SA side of the border.
The shrunken zone could still host up to 2.8GW of offshore wind energy – enough to power over 2 million homes, or two-and-a-half Portland Smelters. The existing smelter consumes up to 10 per cent of electricity in Victoria.
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