NSW swamped by offshore wind proposals in new Illawarra renewable zone

The New South Wales government has been swamped by mostly offshore wind proposals in the latest test of interest for one of the renewable energy zones to be built to smooth the transition from coal to renewables.

Treasurer and state energy minister Matt Kean says the Illawarra Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) has attracted $43 billion worth of potential investments in response to the call for expressions of interest issued in early July.

This includes 44 different projects, 17GW of generation and storage capacity, and a mix of offshore and onshore wind, solar, energy storage, pumped hydro, green hydrogen and green steel.

More than $35 billion of the potential investment came from 10 wind projects, including eight located offshore, that totalled 12.9 gigawatts.

There were also five solar projects, 16 energy storage projects including 11 big batteries, and four pumped hydro projects. There were also three “load projects”, including green steel manufacturing. The Illawarra region is a major steel producer.

“The response has been tremendous, with particularly strong interest in offshore wind, energy storage technologies and green hydrogen,” Kean said in a statement.

“The Illawarra REZ will help deliver cheap and reliable energy, power existing industries, support emerging industries to thrive and create thousands of new jobs in the future.”

The prominence of offshore wind is not surprising given the huge amount of interest in the new technology, and the sheer scale of the projects. Where on shore wind and solar farms came range from less than 100MW and up (and the largest to date is 400MW), offshore wind projects are expected to be between 1GW and 2GW each.

The planned opening up of offshore wind zones by the federal government, and the 9GW target set by the Victoria government for 2040, has created huge interest in Australia, including from major infrastructure companies, oil and gas giants, and established renewable energy developers.

Illawarra is one of six offshore wind zones identified by the federal government, with the Gippsland region in Victoria likely to go first, followed by Hunter and Illawarra in NSW, Portland in Victoria, Tasmania and in Western Australia south of Perth.

The Illawarra REZ is the latest sounding by the NSW government as it seeks to build new zones in the Centra West, northern NSW, Hunter, Illawarra, and the south west region.

“This highlights the variety of large-scale energy projects being developed in the region, that will ensure the Illawarra plays a role as the powerhouse of the renewable energy economy,” Kean said in a statement.

The results of the ROI will be used by the newly formed Energy Corporation of NSW (EnergyCo) to design the size, timing and location of the Illawarra REZ, with the zone expected to be formally declared by the end of 2022.

The first auctions of capacity and locations in the Central West Orana renewable energy zone are expected to be conducted from early October.

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