Reducing uncertainty for offshore wind in Australia

Q1: What do you think is the significance of Gippsland’s development towards Australia’s offshore wind industry?

Kirsty: Victoria is leading the way for Australia in terms of not only awarding its first offshore wind feasibility licenses but also by setting the frameworks in place to support it. Recent announcements regarding regulations, subsidies and grid connection are starting to create some certainty for developers - at least for the region’s first-mover projects. But there is more to do. Some regulations are still in draft, guidelines are awaiting release and the subsidies and grid announcements only serve the first few projects within the Gippsland region. These framework developments in Victoria will likely shape how the other offshore wind regions in Australia move forward and these need to progress in a similar proactive and timely way.

Q2: What are the key aspects in your view that we need to get right to facilitate a smooth development of the offshore wind industry in Australia?

Kirsty: As well as clarity around the regulatory, grid and subsidy, we need to get a handle on the supply chain.

Australia has gone from zero to 13 potential parallel projects over the last couple of months. These projects take an enormous amount of resources, equipment and logistics to deliver. This is both in terms of the primary and secondary components that make up the project and how and where they will be designed, manufactured, assembled and installed; and in the development phase, how the baseline data is going to be gathered, analysed, written up, reviewed, submitted, engaged upon and examined through all levels of stakeholders - the regulators, the technical stakeholders, the developers, the communities and the consultants. The number of people needed to support this process across these projects and future prospective projects in the other offshore wind regions is enormous. We also need to consider that there is likely to be some proximity conflicts between projects which may impact the flexibility of some providers. The industry will need to pull on a wide base of resources that includes transferrable capability and international offshore wind experience. We have examples where this has been done successfully in other international emerging markets but the sooner we acknowledge this and act upon it, the more likely we minimise bottlenecks and facilitate the growth trajectory of the market here.

Q3: What are the key lessons learnt from other countries when offshore wind development was emerging and how can this be contexualised for Australia?

Kirsty: A key lesson I have seen in other markets is around the importance of retaining technology options within the consents secured for the project. The final technology is not likely to be selected for at least 5 years. This technology is rapidly evolving. We need to retain flexibility to ensure that a viable project can be selected at the procurement stage. In Europe, we generally use a concept called the Technical or Design Envelope whereby ranges are provided around the key technical parameters of the project and the realistic worst case within these ranges is selected to assess the environmental impact. This ensures that the project is consentable but also buildable. I was working as a consent lead for an offshore wind project in the UK when we were still getting to grips with this approach as a sector and had to deal with a consent variation to increase the turbine height. This was a complex and protracted process so we should do what we can proactively to minimize this. This will be particularly important for Australia where we don’t have much information on the ground conditions in these regions and some regions are at significant water depths meaning we need to retain that flexibility in technology options. There are still over 50 different floating designs largely based around 4 or 5 key concepts.

Q4: How can effective partnerships from all stakeholders help drive the development of the offshore wind industry, and derisk for all parties?

Kirsty: We need to think proactively around partnerships and collaborations across all levels of stakeholders:

• Regulators - to manage the interface between and minimize duplication of effort
• Technical stakeholders - to reach consensus on approaches, methods and mitigation
• Developers - to manage regional challenges but also recognising these projects are in a race for subsidies
• The Community and the project - to make sure we consider the site-specific elements of the project appropriately
• The supply chain - to manage the resource challenges that will face this market

In Europe, it has taken us time to move from a competitive to a collaborative approach and we need to do this early and proactively to superboost progress.

Q5: What would be your one call to action for the different stakeholder groups to form an effective partnership?

Kirsty: Australia has all the ingredients for a flourishing offshore wind market- be open and proactive to collaboration, learn from international precedents and examples but be innovative in your approach to suit the needs of the Australian environment and people.