The federal government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency has given a $1.5 million grant to help develop a windfarm project off the coast of Portland, in south-west Victoria.
Key points:
- Portland is one of six offshore wind energy zones declared by the federal government
- Grampians New Energy Taskforce chair Stuart Benjamin says these projects have begun to speed up in the last few months
- He says in the Grampians region, there are nearly $16 billion renewables projects ready to go
The $4 billion project aims to supply Portland's aluminium smelter with 100 per cent renewable energy. The turbines will sit at least 10–12 kilometres offshore.
The windfarm is slated for completion in 2028, the same year Yallourn power station will close.
It is one of many renewable projects around the state in early planning stages or ready for construction.
Grampians New Energy Taskforce chair Stuart Benjamin said these projects had begun to speed up in the last few months.
"We're going to see a lot more of these projects," he said.
"Up in the Gannawarra Shire, they've got two large solar farms there at the moment, but they've got 10 more projects ready to start, so there's a lot of projects sitting there.
"Just in the Grampians region, there's nearly $16 billion renewables projects — a combination of wind and solar — who are ready to go, done all their due diligence and ready to deploy."
Offshore windfarms critical for renewable energy targets
Portland is one of six offshore wind energy zones declared by the federal government last month, something which Mr Benjamin said would help respond to planned closures of coal generators in Victoria.
"There's no coal-fired plant in the world that has announced its closure and has made it to that date, they've all closed early," he said.
"So we've got to start accelerating this thing because none of us want our lights to go off."
Jeff Dimery, chief executive of Alinta Energy, who owns the project, said offshore windfarms would ensure Australia meets its renewable energy targets.
"I think offshore wind is absolutely critical if Australia is to achieve its target of net zero emissions by 2050," he said.
Mr Dimery said this grant would fund early planning stages to ensure the windfarm was a success.
"It's really important that it is windy if you're going to spend $5 billion on infrastructure relying on that resource, so what we've done is bought and installed equipment to measure offshore wind speeds, as to where the turbines would be placed," he said.
"It enables us to get more accurate information on the windfarm itself."
Alinta Energy's parent company Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, owns 70 per cent of the coal-fired Loy Yang B plant, Victoria's only coal generator without a closure date.
Mr Benjamin said the company's push toward wind generation proved electricity generators recognised the long-term future of renewables.
"What's interesting is you've got a business like Alinta who currently run coal-fired plants in the Latrobe Valley, who are thinking about what their business looks like in 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and this is very clearly part of their plan," he said.
Mr Dimery said the closure of other coal generators in Victoria was a driving force to build this windfarm within the next six years.
"Energy Australia announced they were closing their coal-fired power station at Yallourn by 2028," he said.
"So that's really been a target date for us with this particular development, to have that wind resource providing electricity to the grid around the same time that base load power would be coming out of the grid."
Consistency biggest barrier to renewables
Major changes to Australia's electricity market, such as paying electricity providers to guarantee base load capacity, would ensure this project would go ahead.
"At the moment, it would be uneconomical to develop an offshore windfarm in its own right, so we will need to see a change to the market for the project to go ahead, but that's already been slated," Mr Dimery said.
"Those changes are being considered by regulatory bodies at the moment.
"We're definitely investing with a view that if we're serious about hitting these emission reduction targets, then clearly incentives will be put in place to achieve that."
Mr Dimery also pointed out that one wind project alone could not survive, and a raft of similar projects were needed to ensure these projects are affordable.
"The problem is that we're so far removed from the rest of the world, the cost of bringing that really important equipment to develop these projects means that we have to have large scale," he said.
"We'd like to see other offshore windfarms being developed so that we have the scale to entice the suppliers of the infrastructure needed to build windfarms into the country."