Australia’s “second most advanced” offshore wind farm gets major boost

Flotation Energy’s 1.5GW Seadragon offshore wind project proposed for the declared Gippsland development zone off the south-eastern coast of Victoria says it has been awarded major project status by the federal government.

Flotation’s project is the second in the Gippsland Offshore Wind Zone to have its approvals process streamlined, ahead of the allocation of feasibility licences to confirm which groups will have access to the seabed.

The first was awarded to Star of the South in December 2022.

“We are still waiting and hoping that feasibility licenses will be announced before the end of this year,” Flotation Energy Australia’s head of operations Carolyn Sanders told RenewEconomy.

“We are the second offshore wind project in Australia to be awarded Major Project Status, and we are the second most advanced offshore wind project in Australia.”

Major project status doesn’t bypass or accelerate approvals, but it does give the project one single entry point for approvals, along with help and support from the Major Projects Facilitation Agency.

With 37 applications for licences in the Gippsland Offshore Wind Zone, and likely only a handful of projects being approved, companies like Flotation Energy are pushing forward to ensure their project gets a spot.

In July this year, the company signed a multi-million dollar deal to start environmental surveys, and said at the time that it had started “all aspects of the project” to meet the 2030 commissioning deadline.

“The Seadragon Offshore Wind Project has been in development since 2019,” Sanders told RenewEconomy.

“We hope that we would be able to reach a financial investment decision in around 2027 and be providing first power by 2030. But there are a few things that need to fall in place for that to happen.”

The federal government released the first draft of new regulations around offshore wind farm licensing earlier this year, but the project is still moving very slowly.

“We are keen for the next tranche of regulations under the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act, because they’re the regulations that govern management plans,” Sanders said.

“We’ll need management plans in order to be able to go ahead with the next stage of project activities, like geotechnical surveys and deployment of floating LiDAR.

“We are waiting for those regulations before we can proceed with some of those key project activities and keep ourselves on schedule.”

Japanese energy giant Tokyo Electric Power Company bought Flotation Energy late last year, joining Ørsted, Equinor, Iberdrola, Shell, Corio and others who are staking a claim in Australia’s offshore wind prospects.