The same party that legislated for offshore wind farms now wants to ban them. It’s nuclear in reverse

Who said this?

“An offshore electricity industry in Australia will further strengthen our economy. …Offshore generation and transmission can deliver significant benefits to all Australians through a more secure and reliable electricity system, and create thousands of new jobs and business opportunities in regional Australia.”

If you answered the federal energy minster, you would be half right.

Current minister Chris Bowen has said a lot of these sorts of things this week, what with the declaration of the Illawarra offshore wind energy zone on the weekend followed by the awarding of a feasibility licence to what stands to be Australia’s first floating wind project off the coast of the New South Wales Hunter region.

But the quote above comes from the former federal energy minister, the Coalition’s Angus Taylor, who uttered it in September 2021 when he announced the successful passage through parliament of the Offshore Energy Infrastructure Bill.

It’s worth remembering in this week’s mind-bending chapter of Australian energy politics that it was the Liberal National Party – the same LNP that is currently threatening to tear up multi-billion dollar offshore wind contracts and undeclare development zones – that introduced the bill paving the way for its development in Australian waters.

Just as it is the Liberal National Party – the same LNP that on Wednesday promised to use public money to build seven nuclear power plants – which under the leadership of John Howard cut a deal with the Greens that banned the future development of nuclear power plants in Australia.

Confusing, isn’t it? Imagine being a developer of offshore wind that has spent the better part of a decade working up a project that, this time next year, could be rendered obsolete if there is a change of government.

Andy Evans, the CEO and co-founder of Australian offshore wind developer Oceanex Energy would not be drawn on politics when he spoke to Renew Economy on Thursday.

He only noted that Oceanex – whose 2GW Novocastrian Offshore Wind Farm, co-developed with Equinor, was this week awarded a feasibility licence by federal Labor – has had many positive dealings with the three different federal energy ministers who occupied the role during the federal Coalition’s time in power.

But two-and-a-half years is a long time in politics, and who can predict where the wind will blow?

Who would have thought that the same party that opened the door to offshore wind in 2021 would slam it shut in 2024, with National Party leader David Littleproud telling the Illawarra, in person, his party will ban any offshore wind projects from being developed in the newly declared zone.

Littleproud claims to have a particular beef with floating wind, the sort that will be built off the coast of NSW, as opposed to the fixed-bottom wind farms that will be built in waters off the coast of Victoria.

Certainly, floating offshore wind is more expensive than fixed-bottom wind at the moment, but as Oceanex’s Evans told Renew Economy on Thursday, the economics of wind is changing all the time, as more and more projects are rolled out around the globe and as technologies evolve.

“It’s been a bit more expensive, but we have the benefit, in Australia, of having all these other jurisdictions around the world going through processes and refining … costs.

“Eight years ago, we would have been talking about 8 megawatt turbines and being really hopeful that we’ll get to 8 megawatts. Now we’re talking 15 megawatts as the base case.

“So we’ve really got the benefits, here, of these projects going on around the world – particularly floating – so we’ll we’ll get the benefits in Australia.”

As a side note, Evans says floating wind turbines also have less of an impact on the sea bed than their fixed bottom cousins.

“So if you are looking out for the environment, that’s what you want,” he told Renew Economy.