Spark joins Australian offshore wind rush as part of new consortium

Spark Renewables has become the latest major developer to declare plans to develop offshore wind farms off the coast of the New South Wales as part of a consortium with Simply Blue Group and Subsea7.

Spark, the cashed up clean energy offshoot of network company Spark Infrastructure, says the consortium is seeking to develop floating offshore wind projects in the state’s recently declared Hunter-Central Coast and Illawarra Renewable Energy Zones.

The projects would be developed in Commonwealth waters, including what is shaping up to be the nation’s second official offshore wind energy development zone, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast from the NSW Hunter region.

Spark – which has been building its profile as a major player in renewables – owns a stake in Transgrid, the operator of the main transmission network in NSW, making the state a good place to kick off any offshore wind development plans.

To lend experience to Spark’s ambition, Simply Blue Group is a leading early stage developer of floating offshore wind, with a pipeline of 10GW of projects in Ireland, UK, Europe and America.

Subsea7, meanwhile, is an expert in the delivery of offshore projects and services for the energy industry, including some of the largest offshore wind projects so far developed around the world – it has already partnered with Simply Blue Group on a floating wind project in Scotland.

“The consortium will investigate the suitability of areas for developing an offshore wind farm within the proposed Hunter offshore area and the foreshadowed Illawarra offshore area,” says Anthony Marriner, head of Spark Renewables.

“As a NSW-based company, we understand the community issues, and this is a key focus for us on all our projects,” he added.

Sam Roch-Perks, the group CEO of Simply Blue says the company sees “huge potential” for offshore floating wind projects off New South Wales.

“We hope to bring the valuable lessons learnt from our existing global portfolio of over 10GW of floating wind projects to Australia,” he said.

Spark, which was acquired for $5.2 billion by international investors KKR and Ontario Teachers in 2021, has turned its focus to “reinventing the green grid” though major infrastructure projects and a multi-billion play in renewables and battery storage.

The company says the current capacity of its development portfolio has grown to around 7GW, spanning solar, wind and battery storage projects.

These projects include the up to 1GW Mallee wind farm and big battery in the highly sought-after South-West Renewable Energy Zone in New South Wales.