The offshore wind industry is a step closer after the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has made preliminary decisions on the granting of feasibility licences for offshore wind projects in Commonwealth waters off the Gippsland region in Victoria.
The feasibility licence application process for the Gippsland offshore wind area was highly competitive, with 37 applications received for feasibility licences for the 15,000km2 zone.
All feasibility licence applications were assessed by the Offshore Infrastructure Registrar against the suitability and merit requirements set out in the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (OEI Act) and associated regulations. These requirements include technical and financial capability, likely project viability, applicant suitability and the national interest.
Of the 37 feasibility licence applications received:
- 6 are under preliminary consideration for the granting of feasibility licences and have begun the next stage of consultation with First Nation groups
- 6 are under preliminary consideration to progress through the overlapping application process, where applicants will be invited to revise and resubmit their applications to remove overlap with other equally meritorious applicants
- A preliminary decision has been made to not to proceed to grant a feasibility licence in relation to the remaining 25 applications, on the basis that they are not as meritorious as overlapping applications, subject to further consultation with those applicants.
If all 6 proposed projects under preliminary consideration for a licence were to proceed through proving feasibility to commercialisation, they could generate 12 GW of electricity and create over 25,000 construction jobs and 1,500 ongoing jobs. These numbers would increase if the other 6 applications are able to resolve their overlap and procced to commercialisation.
Applicants have been provided information on the status of their applications and the next steps in the process towards the granting of licences which is expected to be completed in early 2024.
No action is required from those applicants that are under preliminary consideration for the granting of feasibility licences.
Before making a final decision on whether to grant a licence to these applicants, the Minister is consulting First Nations groups to consider native title rights and interests in the proposed licence areas. Submissions received through this consultation process will be taken into account when making a final decision on licensing.
In early 2024, the applicants moving through the overlapping process will be invited by the Registrar to revise and resubmit their applications to remove the overlap. They will be provided with sufficient detail on the overlapping application and nearby applications to assist with this process. If following this process any overlaps remain, they may be invited to submit financial offers.
The OEI Act prohibits the Minister from making public the information contained in the feasibility applications at this stage, including the names of applicants. This is to ensure commercially sensitive information is protected.
When licences are granted, information on the licence will be made public including the name of the licence holder, details of the licence area, and any conditions that apply to the licence.
Gippsland in Victoria was the first Australian offshore wind energy area to be declared and will be the first area to have feasibility licences granted. Applications for feasibility licences within the Gippsland area opened on 23 January 2023 and closed on 27 April 2023.
The other 5 offshore wind areas that are under development are the Pacific Ocean regions off the Hunter and Illawarra in NSW, the Southern Ocean region off Victoria and South Australia, the Bass Strait region off Northern Tasmania, and the Indian Ocean region off Perth/Bunbury in WA.
