The federal government of Australia has approved the fourth offshore wind zone, this time off the Illawarra coast
Previously, Australia declared wind zones in the Hunter region in NSW, Gippsland and Southern Ocean in Victoria.
However, the Illawarra offshore wind zone was declared with a reduced size, following community concerns. The zone is stretching from Stanwell Park to Kiama, with a surface reduced from 1,461 km to 1,022 km. The amended zone will now see the turbines positioned 20 km from the coast.
The area now excludes significant environmental areas including the biologically important area for the Little Penguin, the Shelf Rocky Reef, and the Southern Right Whale Migration and Reproduction Area.
As a consequence, offshore wind generation has also been scaled down. From the original 4.2GW, it is now reduced to 2.9GW.
BlueFloat Energy was the first company to publish plans for an offshore wind farm off the Illawarra coast before the revised area was announced but withdrew its application following backlash from the local community.
The plan envisaged 105 turbines with a diameter of up to 275 m with the wind farm set to be located 14 to 30 km off the Illawarra coast.
After Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced the reduced area, BlueFloat Manufacturing general manager Dave Scott said that the company’s project would not be ready by 2030.
This area received a lot of backlash from the locals who argued that the turbines and the red lights atop them would spoil the pristine environment of the coastline.
