EnergyAustralia enters race for major Victorian offshore wind farms
EnergyAustralia has joined the ranks of major electricity suppliers seeking to elbow into the country’s offshore wind sector, taking a stake in a project proposed off the coast of Victoria that could replace ageing coal generators.
The country’s third-biggest electricity and gas retailer is one of five partners in the Elanora Offshore venture, which wants to develop a five-gigawatt wind project off the Gippsland coast – Australia’s first declared offshore wind zone – that could cost as much as $25 billion when fully developed.
The Elanora project would involve 270-metre-high turbines.
Importantly, the consortium includes major offshore wind contractor Boskalis, which owns a fleet of over 650 specialist vessels and which would help the venture overcome what are expected to be significant challenges for the nascent industry to source the materials and resources required.
“Each consortium member is a leader in their field… it’s a very exciting model, and we have aligned it to tackle all the problems we normally see in new markets,” said Maya Malik, chief executive of Elanora Offshore.
The project would involve massive 21-megawatt turbines, about 270 metres tall to the tips of the blades, but which would be located far offshore to limit their visibility from the coast, Ms Malik said.
Leading the venture is KIMAenergy, a developer co-founded by Ms Malik which has offshore development experience in Europe and Asia-Pacific, having worked on over 15GW of projects globally.
The consortium also includes Australian-led renewables developer Polpo Investments, which has developed grid-scale solar in Australia and onshore renewables in Europe, and Poland-based Respect Energy, an established energy trader and retailer that operates
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