Australia to open talks on New South Wales offshore wind zone

The Australian government is set to launch a consultation on a new offshore wind zone off Australia’s Pacific coast with the potential to host up to 4.2GW of capacity.

Chris Bowen, the minister for energy and climate change, said today (14 August) that the latest offshore wind zone being explored would be a 1,461km² maritime area off the coast of Illawara on the Pacific Coast of New South Wales, south of Sydney.

The proposed area is 10km from the coast at its nearest landfall point and stretches from Kiama in the south to Wombarra in the north.

The Illawara zone is the latest offshore wind zone announced by the Australian government as it seeks to embrace the country’s vast offshore wind potential as part of its climate change strategy.

Other zones were announced earlier this year including another 1,854km² zone off the coast of New South Wales, in the Hunter Region north of Sydney, which was unveiled in July.

Offshore wind zones are also being explored in the Southern Ocean off the coasts of Victoria and South Australia, in the Bass Strait region off northern Tasmania, and off Australia’s west coast in the Indian Ocean off Perth and Bunbury.

Several offshore wind developers have already expressed an interest in the Illawara region, including Irish developer Simply Blue Group, which announced a joint consortium with contractors Subsea7 and Australian renewables developer Spark Renewables earlier this year to pursue offshore wind opportunities in New South Wales.

Bowen claimed in his statement that the Illawara offshore wind zone could generate up to 2,500 construction jobs and 1,250 ongoing jobs in the region.

Consultations with local communities about the proposed offshore wind zone will start on 16 September.