“When can I get a job?” Community leaders say coal country ready – and waiting – for offshore wind

As the federal opposition and conservative lobby groups continue to push for a “rethink” of Victoria’s offshore wind plans, arguing they will be a drag on big business and the economy, the communities in line to be directly affected by the new industry have rather different concerns.

“The number one question we get through our door is, ‘When are you starting? When can I get a job? How can I get involved?,” says Erin Coldham, the chief development officer at Southerly Ten, the specialist offshore wind developer that is behind Australia’s most advanced project, the 2.2 gigawatt Star of the South.

Alongside the Star of the South, a total of nine projects hold feasibility licences for the Gippsland development zone, backed by some of the world’s leading developers – as Coldham points out, while offshore wind is a new industry for Australia, there are about 13,000 turbines in oceans around the world.

Victoria, with federal support from the Labor Albanese government, is hoping to meet its legislated targets of 2 gigawatts (GW) on installed offshore wind generation capacity by 2032, followed by 4 GW by 2035 and 9 GW by 2040.

Coldham, who recalled her first visit to the Wellington Shire Council nearly a decade ago to brief councillors on Star of the South, was back in Sale on Wednesday to help launch the Gippsland Offshore Wind Sector Plan – a sort of roadmap to empower the region to play a leading role in the nascent renewables sector.

The plan was put together by the Gippsland Offshore Wind Alliance – a group formed by the Committee for Gippsland and the Gippsland Climate Change Network – whose mission is to secure investment, develop a skilled workforce and build the necessary infrastructure to support what promises to be a major new industry.

But the overriding message from the plan and from its launch at the Port of Sale this week is that Gippsland is ready – and waiting – for offshore wind.

Coldham says the plan – a hardcopy and online resource that includes, among many other things, a statement of commitment from the global developers seeking to build projects – is “symbolic” of the engagement, support and collaboration that exists in the region.

“It’s very unique. It’s very precious… and we don’t take it for granted,” she told the gathering.

“We don’t want it to just sit on the shelf… We’ll be out there talking to people, because I think the amount of diverse perspectives and the different interests we see in this offshore wind sector, particularly how that can benefit people locally, is something that we all want to stand back in 10-20 years’ time and say that we’ve achieved.”

As the plan notes, “the Latrobe Valley has been the centre of Victoria’s power industry for 100 years” – and this much is evident on the drive to the launch from Melbourne – plenty of transmission lines, the odd remaining coal plant, and a range of onshore renewable projects dot the landscape.

Research conducted by Star of the South found strong alignment with many of the existing energy sector skillsets held by workers the region, with 70 per cent of coal, oil and gas workforce skills found to overlap with offshore wind, including many engineering-based technical roles.

Equally, the research found that 70 per cent of the coal power and mining workforce in the region has a good or high opportunity to work in offshore wind, particularly as the region’s remaining coal plants come to the end of their working lives.

Tom McIntosh, a former electrician who for the past four years has represented Eastern Victoria in the Legislative Council – and who spoke at the plan launch on Wednesday – says that offshore wind represents a generational opportunity for the region.

“The exciting thing about offshore wind is you’re not just talking about a one [or] two-year placement that might be good for young workers. It’s about the opportunity for generational work, for people to be able to … establish families [based on a] guaranteed income.

“The maintenance and operations side of offshore wind is massive. We know there are years and years and years of construction across the projects.

“So whether you’re in the immediate construction or the maintenance and operations … whether people are engineers or they’re welders, whether they’re electricians, there’s such a wide variety of opportunities.

“I think it gives a big scope to a whole lot of people, a whole lot of their families and their communities, to have jobs, to have well paid jobs, and see the quality of life improve in their local areas.”

McIntosh, who grew up on a farm near Ballarat, says many farmers in the region are also supportive – of both onshore and offshore renewables – as economic boosters to their communities.

“Obviously, there are those [farmers] who aren’t [supportive of renewables],” McIntosh told Renew Economy on Wednesday. “But I think, as a business owner, it doesn’t matter what business what businesses business it is. Diversifying income streams is really important.

“In the past, we’ve done that by, you know, the town of where Yallourn [coal power station] is, a whole town was was flooded, moved and flooded [and] farms were taken for open cut pit mines.

“So we’re not seeing anywhere near that level of intrusion [from renewables], but… it’s about working with people, ensuring that people are financially rewarded… bringing as many people on board as possible.

“I mean, we sold our farm off the back of successive droughts,” he adds. “The first drought we had to sell half the farm. A subsequent [drought], that finished us off, as dams and lakes disappeared and towns dwindled, footy clubs left, pubs closed, shops. It’s very, very depressing.

“So by diversifying income … particularly regional rural areas, we’re ensuring those communities can stay long term, and we’re enabling farmers to be able to continue to pass their land down through generations, if that is what they wish to do.”

McIntosh says that while there are still people in the community, and in politics, opposing renewables in the region, there is plenty of tangible support and progress, too.

“I was just at the [now State Electricity Commission-owned] Delburn wind farm on the way here,” he told the gathering on Wednesday. “So there’s 55 people working on site. I was fortunate enough to stand alongside trainees and cadets and apprentices, all living within about 30 km, who were there working on that project.

“I think seeing that those opportunities… for well paid jobs is is incredibly important and, sorry to be political again, but there are still major political parties with active online petitions on their websites right now to stop that project dead in its tracks.

“It’s, you know, a major employer. And probably, [at] $700 million, …. one of the biggest investments in the valley. And there are people who want to stop it on ideological grounds of being anti-renewable.”

Speaking with Renew Economy after the launch, McIntosh says he believes its really important that Gippsland communities can see that there is determination to deliver renewables in region – and have faith in the benefits that will come along with them.

“I think there’s been that long-term decline, and then also the rapid acceleration of that decline as as power stations either have closed or prepare to close. And that has massive impacts on community.

“So to have this opportunity, to hear about this plan today – where they’re meeting with supply chains, meeting with local businesses … the massive amounts of manufacturing… those opportunities here for local businesses – is just really, really important, so that their staff, their supply chains, their connections know that this opportunity is coming and available to them.”

And what about the political leanings of federal and state opposition parties – could a change of state or federal government derail Australia’s offshore wind sector before it has a chance to get started?

“I’m probably less concerned about offshore wind because I think there’s so much community buy-in, it would take a very bold government to kill tens of billions of dollars of investment in something that guarantees electricity for our state and our nation and really, really hurts local communities and local economies,” McIntosh says.

“I do worry about other forms of energy generation, about investment in electrification; there still seems to be a sort of unfounded, unwarranted technological dislike for certain technologies.

“Everyone knows someone with [rooftop] solar and it’s just accepted that … it saves you money, and now we’ve got abundant excess electricity during the middle of the day, so people are seeing that.

“I think that there are certain things that any government can’t touch, but it’s all these new advancements we need to make to decarbonise our economy – whether it’s electric vehicles or whether it’s batteries or other things that haven’t quite fully pushed through into the mainstream yet – that would get cut to shreds,” McIntosh says.

“And we’d get policies that don’t make sense from a climate perspective, but also don’t make sense economically, whether that’s small modular nuclear reactors that don’t exist, or extending the life of coal plants that … even their owners know … have met their life and they can’t continue.”

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