Plans for Australia’s first offshore wind farm have taken a step forward, with the project developers launching a labour market study to identify the capability of the Australian market to deliver what would be one of Australia’s largest renewable energy projects.
The Star of the South wind farm, which is being pursued by the Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners would be the first offshore wind farm in the southern hemisphere, requiring the first of its kind deployment of wind turbines off the Victorian coast.
The project proposed off the Gippsland coast in the south of Victoria has a planned capacity of up to 2,200MW and would be expected to produce roughly the same amount of energy each year as the now de-commissioned Hazelwood brown-coal power station.
In undertaking the labour market study, the project will examine the skills and workforce requirements needed to complete the project, including the availability of specialised vessels required to provide both construction and maintenance services to the offshore wind turbines.
Star of the South says there is likely to be a need to facilitate the training of local workers in the skills required to deploy and maintain offshore wind turbines, given it is the first of its type for the country. Likewise, the study will identify the need to procure new dedicated vessels that may be required to support the project.
The study will be completed by Atlas Professionals, an HR service provider with previous experience in advising the delivery of offshore projects through Europe.
‘We are excited to work together with Star of the South and be part of
the development of Australia’s first offshore wind project. Since
starting our renewable energy activities earlier this year, we have
managed to get engagements in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore
and Japan,” Atlas Professionals’ regional director of renewables Edgare
Kerkwijk said.
“This is evidence that the regional offshore wind
market is growing rapidly, and the need for skilled manpower is growing
equally fast.’
The Federal government granted the project approvals to commence site exploration back in March
,
allowing the wind farm developers to identify optimal siting for wind
turbines off the Gippsland coast, with the local community being engaged
in consultation for possible locations.
While Australia has good
availability of high-quality wind resources, the first offshore wind
farm would provide an opportunity to develop a project at a size and
scale that has not been seen in on-shore projects in Australia.
GE Renewable Energy successfully deployed a new record-setting 12MW offshore wind turbine
in
the Netherlands last month, with the turbine standing 260 metres tall,
and sporting 107 metre-long blades, that is expected to go into
commercial production after a period of testing in 2021.
The proposed 250 wind turbine project, with an expected investment value of around $8 billion
, would see some of the world’s largest wind turbine designs deployed in Australia for the first time.
With
proximity to Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the project would have the
ability to tap into the existing transmission infrastructure that exists
in the region, with an undersea cable planned for linking the offshore
turbines to the mainland.
Progress for the project comes as an AEMO report highlights
the
“unprecedented change” underway in the Victorian energy system, as the
State’s generation base shifts from east to west, as large brown coal
generators in the Latrobe Valley reach the end of their operating life,
and the development of renewable energy projects occurs in the west.
A
large wind farm development that can utilise the existing transmission
network infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley would be an attractive
option for replacing Victoria’s ageing fleet with new renewable energy
generation capacity.
Michael Mazengarb
Michael Mazengarb is a
journalist with RenewEconomy, based in Sydney. Before joining
RenewEconomy, Michael worked in the renewable energy sector for more
than a decade.
