Offshore wind hopefuls launch weather and marine surveys as they await news of delayed auction

After a very quiet year Gippsland offshore wind proponents are getting their pre-Christmas news out — but the state government is unable yet to unveil its own big announcement about the delayed revenue support auction.

On Thursday, the Ocean Winds joint venture said it will start its first Australian offshore wind and metocean surveys to collect data for its proposed 1.3 gigawatt (GW) High Sea wind project off the coast of Gippsland.

Metocean is a combination of meteorology and oceanography, and studies the combination of weather and ocean conditions.

Norwegian company TGS will lead the survey.

Ocean Winds, a joint venture between Portugal’s EDP Renewables and France’s Engie, says the wind, wave, current, and environmental data will be “critical” for deciding what type of turbines to use, the overall design of the wind project and transmission, and the upcoming environmental assessments.

“We believe robust data is the foundation of responsible offshore wind development,” Ocean Wind’s Pelayo Rodríguez Alonso said in a statement.

The metocean study follows permission last month for Ocean Winds to do geophysical and geotechnical investigations on the seafloor without needing federal EPBC oversight. 

Ocean Winds’ news that it’s moving ahead with ocean surveys comes on the heels of Star of the South’s latest move towards getting construction started this decade. 

It lodged what it calls the most comprehensive environmental impact statement (EIS) ever made for an energy project in Australia, and bought land in Gippsland where its underground transmission cables will come ashore.

Should I stay or should I go

High Sea Wind is the smallest of the proposed wind farms and one of the furthest from the shore, and is one of the remaining nine feasibility licences of the original 12 to be granted.

The total capacity of the remaining licensed projects is 16.3 GW, almost double the 9 GW target Victoria set for offshore wind by 2040.

Which means that more exits from the Gippsland zone are likely, given the competition for contracts and the stubbornly high price of the technology. 

Already, AGL is out, pulling its 2.5 GW Gippsland Skies proposal from the mix in order to focus on onshore batteries. This was not unexpected by some in the industry.

In July, Spanish company Bluefloat Energy dumped the 2.5 GW Gippsland Dawn proposal, and there is uncertainty around Origin Energy’s and RES Australia’s 1.5 GW Navigator North proposal after key staff being laid off in September.

But while the Australian exits still leave a full suite of proponents in the Gippsland zone, New Zealand is faring less well. 

BP joint venture Jera Nex bp said last week that it is out of the Taranaki offshore wine zone, marking the third venture of five to quit in the last 14 months. 

It pulled the proposed 1 GW Taranaki Bight project, joining Bluefloat Energy which left in October last year, before that company’s collapse in July and Japan’s Sumitomo earlier this year.

While other developers are still keen – proposals by Elemental Group and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are still reportedly in the mix – the Taranaki zone generally is at risk. 

The National government is taking a hands off approach to offshore wind rather than leaning in with policy, or any other, support.

And the recent revival of offshore seabed mining in the Taranaki area is causing consternation, with Bluefloat blaming it directly for its exit.

Jera Nex’s own submission during the planning process for a seafloor mine said it could make offshore wind impossible to build. 

Port of Hastings gets EES go ahead

Unlike New Zealand, Victoria is pushing hard to ensure its offshore wind zone succeeds, with the planning minister approving the final scoping requirements for the Port of Hastings. 

The port, initially knocked back by the federal EPBC before returning with a revised proposal that didn’t affect the nearby Western Port Ramsar-listed wetlands, can now go ahead with an environmental effects statement (EES) for its expansion. 

Port of Hastings will need to focus its EES on the impact on plants and animals nearby, given it’s next to the Western Port Ramsar-listed wetlands, and how it will manage the effects of disturbing the local acid sulphate soils.

Acid sulphate soils are naturally occurring but when disturbed can cause surface acidification.

It’s an issue that is coming up across the country at an onshore wind project, the proposed 20-turbine Scott River by Synergy.

The Port of Hastings is the state government’s preferred port to cater to the Gippsland offshore wind zone. 
But uncertainty around its development, alongside uncertainty about federal funding, meant the state abruptly put the first offshore wind auction on hold in September.

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