European offshore wind venture makes 3 bids for Victoria offshore wind tender

Ocean Winds, a recently formed offshore wind venture backed by two of Europe’s biggest energy companies, has become the latest player to reveal big hopes to grab a stake in Australia’s first offshore wind zone.

Ocean Winds is a 50:50 joint venture created in 2019 by Madrid-based EDP Renewables and Paris-based Engie, and has applied to develop three wind projects offshore from Gippsland totalling 4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.

Its plans include both bottom-fixed and floating options, although in Victoria offshore wind farms are expected to favour fixed options because the Continental Shelf extends further out from the coast.

“Ocean Winds is confident that the plan contained in our applications will not only secure the first offshore wind farms in Australia, but also deliver significant economic benefits to the region,” said Ocean Winds CEO Bautista Rodriguez in a statement.

“We firmly believe our three applications together represent an ideal pathway for the establishment of offshore wind in Australia.”

Ocean Winds bid in being managed through a local bidding company called High Sea Wind. Ocean Winds says it has 1.5 GW of offshore wind in operation around the world and another 2 GW in construction.

The tender in Victoria is for the right to conduct detailed feasibility studies and is the first in Australia. It closed in April with a decision expected before the end of the year — although market participants are expecting that timeline to slip into 2024 due to the large number of applications.

Victoria has a 95 per cent renewable energy target by 2035, with at least 2 GW of offshore generation capacity by 2032, 4 GW by 2035 and 9 GW by 2040.

The next big project

In June, federal and Victoria state governments unveiled plans for a new offshore wind zone called the Southern Ocean zone, which takes in some 5,100 kilometres from Warrnambool in Victoria to Port MacDonnell in South Australia.

The zone could host up to 14 GW of offshore wind capacity and federal energy minister Chris Bowen hoped the first wind farm for the new zone might be operational this decade.

Australia plans at least six offshore wind zones. Gippsland is the first, followed by the Southern Ocean, Newcastle, the Illawarra in NSW, northern Tasmania, and around Bunbury in Western Australia.