Plans unveiled for Australia’s biggest offshore wind project by Danish company

A massive 3GW offshore wind farm – the biggest in Australia to date – is being proposed for waters off the coast of south-western Western Australia, comprising up to 200 turbines to be installed in Geographe Bay, roughly 130km south of Perth.

Broad plans for the Leeuwin Offshore Wind project were lodged with the federal government last week by relatively new Danish firm Copenhagen Energy, with many of the detailed design parameters still yet to be determined.

So far, the proposal includes the installation of offshore wind turbines and associated offshore substation platforms in Commonwealth Waters, with the electricity to be brought onshore via export cables that will traverse state waters to landfall onshore, within the Shire of Harvey.

Copenhagen Energy says in documents that the project would likely be developed in phases, with construction at this stage aiming to kick off as early as 2026 and to span a 36-month period, ending in 2028, subject to the completion of the required permitting processes.

Once operational, the Leeuwin Offshore Wind Farm would have 3GW of capacity and output of up to 11 Terawatt-hours (TWh) a year – that would equate to half the generation in the state’s main grid, the South-West Interconnected System.

Copenhagen Energy, headquartered in Carlsberg City in central Copenhagen, was founded in 2020 by Jasmin Bejdic and Andreas von Rosen, specialising in wholesale power trading in Europe, as well as the development of offshore wind farms.

As well as in Australia, the company is currently pursuing offshore wind projects in the Philippines – floating solar projects with combined potential capacity of 3GW; and in Ireland, where it is working with Ivernia Energy to develop a pipeline of seven projects totaling 8GW.

The Copenhagen Energy proposal for Australia marks the fifth being put forward for development off the Western Australa coast – see RenewEconomy’s Offhshore Wind Farm Map of Australia.

Others WA proposals include Flotation Energy’s 500MW wind farm south of Rottnest, Australis Energy’s 300MW project near the coast north of Myalup, Oceanex’s 2GW Bunbury wind farm north of Dunsborough and a 1.1GW project being investigated by Pilot Energy and Triangle Energy.

Australia is only just starting to develop its offshore wind energy industry, after long delays in the passage of federal legislation – finally passed in November of last year – enabling offshore electricity projects to be built and operated; the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021.

The first offshore wind farm likely to be completed in Australian waters is another Danish-backed project, the Star of the South – a 2.2GW affair being developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in waters off the south coast of Gippsland, in Victoria.

Victoria just last week announced an ambitious and game-changing offshore wind energy target – a first for any state or federal government in Australia – that aims to ramp up development in the state from 2GW in 2030 to 9GW by 2040.

The target follows the move by Victoria’s Labor Andrews government to enter into a $43.1 million partnership with the Star of the South to accelerate the project’s development, and establish the beginnings of a local Victorian offshore wind industry.

The proposed Leeuwin Offshore Wind Pty project is open for public comment for a period of 10 business days from 2 March 2022 to 16 March 2022, a federal government notice said.