German wind giant buys into three big Australian offshore wind projects

German wind giant wpd Group has bought into three big offshore wind projects in Australia under a joint venture deal with UK-based Australis Energy.

The three projects – located in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia – have a combined capacity of around 1.4GW, but could grow significantly if they are expanded into Commonwealth waters rather than just state waters.

Australis Energy has done the early work on the three projects, and has now brought in Bremen-based wpd Group – which has more than 5,200MW of onshore and offshore wind capacity and another 30GW in the pipeline – as a joint venture partner.

wpd’s projects development officer Mirjam Tome, who established wpd Offshore’s Australian office earlier this year, says the Victoria project near Portland is the most advanced and – given the explicit push and short, medium and long term targets from the state government – could be in production as early as 2027.

Victoria aims to have 9GW of offshore wind capacity by 2040, with the first coming into production by around 2028, although it remains to be seen whether such timelines can be met given that they will be the first of their kind in Australia.

The country has seen a rush of new project proposals since Victoria unveiled its target – and the federal government provided the first legislation allowing them to be built in Commonwealth waters.

The recent Integrated System Plan produced by the Australian Energy Market Operator does not assume any offshore wind projects in its scenarios – reflecting the early stages of the industry – but has identified a new offshore wind “zone” in the south west of Victoria around Portland.

That is the site of one of the projects now jointly owned by Australis and wpd, and which Tome says has the best chance of getting away first.

A statement from the two companies said the two first phases of the three projects had been completed, and they would now move to phase 3, which will include environmental impact assessments (ESIA), further data collection, landowner agreements, grid access agreements, and planning, permitting and licensing.

The Germany-based wpd has local teams and project developments in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, and is building the 640MW Yunlin project in Taiwan, which will be one of the largest offshore wind projects in the APAC region once completed.

“In this joint venture, wpd can bring both outstanding expertise and many years of experience in the development, implementation and operation of offshore projects to the emerging Australian market,” said Tome.

“With the investment opportunity offered by Australis Energy to participate in the further development of their Australian offshore wind project portfolio, we have the chance to work with one of the first project developers to start systematically developing offshore wind projects in Australia.”

The UK-based Australis Energy says the Portland project would include around 60 turbines totalling around 495MW, and be located around 5kms offshore, about 25kms south west of Portland.

Its South Australia project, off the coast of Kingston, would have capacity of around 600MW, while the Western Australia project, near Bunbury, south of Perth, would have a capacity of around 300MW.

See RenewEconomy’s Offshore Wind Farm Map of Australia