Offshore wind project seeks federal green tick as locals object to view of giant turbines

Plans to develop a 1 gigawatt wind farm in waters off the coast of Gippsland in Victoria have been referred for federal environmental assessment, just over one week after hundreds of locals attended a community meeting in protest of the project.

The Blue Mackerel Offshore Wind Project appeared in the EPBC queue on Monday, with developer Jera Nex bp seeking a green tick for its proposal to install up to 70 wind turbines around 10 km from the shore between Woodside and Seaspray in Victoria’s south east.

The referral says each of the up to 70 turbines will have a capacity ranging from 15 megawatts (MW) to 23 MW, while the height of the upper blade tip will be between 266 metres and 327 metres above sea level, depending on the turbine capacity the company settles on.

The project’s current design is based on 15 MW turbines, but the website notes that should alternative wind turbine technology become available, such as a larger 18.5MW turbine, the turbines would be higher and blades larger, but fewer, in total, would be required.

Blue Mackerel was one of the first projects to be awarded a feasibility licence for its spot in the Gippsland offshore wind zone and, last October, was further awarded Major Project Status by the federal government, in a nod to its key role in weaning the state and national grid off coal.

But it is also one of the most contentious of the nine projects still lining up to compete in the Victorian government’s offshore wind auction in August, due to its proximity to the shores of the 90 Mile Beach that connects the two Gippsland region towns.

In a Facebook post dated January 25, community group Celebrate Seaspray said about 400 people showed up to a two-hour social impact assessment meeting held the day before, facilitated by third-party consultancy Nous Group on behalf of Blue Mackerel.

“When asked for a show of hands, 100% of attendees said they do not support the proposed Blue Mackerel offshore windfarm,” the post says.

“And the Seaspray Windfarm Strategy Group also presented Nous Group with a petition of more than 2600 signatures opposing the project.”

Celebrate Seaspray says the community’s concerns include the loss of visual amenity, with the turbines proposed for just 10km offshore, directly in front of the Seaspray Surf Life Saving Club.

Other concerns range from the impact on tourism, noise and light pollution, harm to birdlife and marine life, and long-term effects on quality of life, social cohesion and mental health in the affected communities.

Also cited on the Facebook post is a “deep lack of trust in Blue Mackerel to operate transparently or authentically or present accurate visual representations of the visual impact of its proposed wind farms from Seaspray’s shoreline.”

Jera Nex bp is a 50:50 joint venture with the renewables arm of Japan’s largest power generation company, Jera, and global oil and gas supermajor, bp.

Its Blue Mackerel project was one of the first to be awarded a feasibility licence by the federal government and the project team have held a number of community information and drop-in sessions and provide extensive information on the project website.

The website also offers 17 different visualisations of what the wind farm would look like from 17 different viewpoints along the coastline of 90 Mile Beach via a visualisation tool, including the above image from the beach neat the Seaspray Surf Club.

A separate set of visualisations on the website offer comparative visualistions using both 15 MW turbines and bigger 18.5 MW turbines.

The visualisations can also be viewed using a virtual reality (VR) headset at the Blue Mackerel offices and at community events.

Blue Mackerel project director David Ghaly says that while Blue Mackeral organised the meetings at Seaspray on Saturday, and then with the Woodside community on the Sunday, the project team was asked not to be in the room while the meetings took place – and honoured this request.

“I wasn’t in the room but I can imagine it was quite an emotionally heightened situation,” Ghaly told Renew Economy on Tuesday.

He says that from the outside of the hall, the team got to engage with a lot of parts of the community it doesn’t usually get encounter, including holiday makers who were there for the long weekend – and a lot of kids.

“While the meeting was on, word got out that we had our VR headsets, so we had a lot of kids tell us about how they learn about different forms of energy in school, in STEM, and they learn about wind and solar and batteries and coal and gas and nuclear.

“So we heard a bunch of different opinions towards the project… across the spectrum,” he said.

“Our approach to community has been to be honest and open and transparent – and technically accurate,” Ghaly says.

“And the reason we’re not trying to hide anything is that you will see these [turbines]. I understand it’s a very emotive on a piece of coastline where there was nothing there, and now there will be something there, and it’s big change.

“But we’re trying to just be as open and honest and transparent as we can when we have the information and share it in the most accurate, realistic way.”

In comments to the ABC published on Tuesday, Ghaly also noted that it was the federal government that had awarded the development sites in the Gippsland development zone and the company couldn’t move its licence area. 

“We have one of the smallest licence areas that was awarded … so we are limited in what we can do in terms of how visible the wind farm is from the shore.

“Whether it’s our project or another project, [the turbines] will be visible.

“What we are trying to do at the moment is to move the conversation to a community benefits program. We’d like to hear from the community about how we can best be a responsible project, given that we will be there for 35 years.”

The EPBC referral documents note that the preliminary review of Seascape, Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (SLVIA) considerations concludes that “at distances of 11 to 14 km offshore the turbines will be noticeable but not dominant elements in views from the onshore environment. Inland visibility is limited due to dunes, vegetation and local landform.”

The documents say that marine uses of the project area include recreational boating, recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and marine-based tourism opportunities including cruises, whale and wild-life watching, sailing, diving, snorkelling, surfing and kayaking.

But it also notes that most recreational boating and fishing occurs close to shore due to rough offshore conditions in Bass Strait.

The documents note that proposed project footprint is considered a Biologically Important Area (BAI) for the Pygmy Blue Whale, the Southern Right Whale, the White Shark, and eight seabird species.

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