After announcing a series of offshore wind projects across Australia and New Zealand, Blue Float Energy and Energy Estate are proposing another offshore wind farm project in an undisclosed location along the South East coast of South Australia.
Key points:
- The proposed wind farm would be located between Port MacDonnell and Portland
- The project aims to deliver around 1.1 gigawatts of energy
- Community consultation is expected to begin early next year
Energy Estate founder Simon Curry said the proposed site was located between Port MacDonnell and Nelson — sitting in one of the six offshore wind zones designated for development by the federal government in August.
“We are looking at the western end of the zone, more towards the South Australian end of the coast,” he said.
Mr Curry said the proposed site would include around 65 turbines, generating approximately 1.1 gigawatts of clean energy.
“That’s the number we’ve settled on at the moment,” he said.
“But we’re still at the early stages of development, so we’ll be looking to refine both turbine selection and the number of turbines in the years to come.”
Mr Curry said steady progress had been made over the past year and that they would soon begin the process of public consultation.
“We had planned to have some community events this week, but they ended up clashing with the local council swearing in its new councillors post-elections,” he said.
“So, we will move those public consultation events around into the new year and have our first community drop-in sessions.”
Image problem
Despite proposing to build the wind farm in federal waters near the continental shelf, Mr Curry said the turbines would still be visible from the coast.
And while Mr Curry believed offshore wind farms did not elicit the same amount of backlash as their onshore counterparts, he said they still faced their own set of image problems.
“That’s one of the challenges that the industry is going to have to face,” he said.
“But we need to work through with all of the users of the sea, the rock lobster industry, the fishing industry, the port, and the coastal communities and see what is achievable.
“This is a listening and learning journey for the industry, not just us, so the more feedback we get the better.”
The Professional Fishermen’s Association at Port MacDonnell was contacted for comment.
Grant District Council was also contacted for comment.
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