Equinor and Oceanex winners as Australia offers first floating wind feasibility licence
Partners' Novocastrian Wind off New South Wales cleared to proceed to next stage as others deemed 'lower merit'
Plans to deploy gigascale floating wind off Australia moved forward today when Norway’s Equinor and local developer Oceanex Energy were given the go-ahead to study the feasibility of a 2GW project off New South Wales.
The Australian government offered a preliminary feasibility licence to the partners for their Novocastrian Wind project, which last year threw its hat in the ring to deploy floating turbines in the Hunter offshore wind zone.
The offer means Equinor and Oceanex can now proceed to assess the feasibility of the project with a view to applying for a commercial licence to build what could be Australia’s first floating wind project.
Australia’s minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen said Novocastrian was the only project to be offered the chance of a licence out of multiple applications, because others “were for overlapping areas and found to be of lower merit”.
Bowen said the combination of existing infrastructure, huge electricity demand from heavy industry and need for new power to replace retiring coal generation makes Hunter a strong candidate for offshore wind.
Others to have declared an interest in developing the Hunter zone include BlueFloat Energy with its Eastern Rise project and French energy giant EDF, whose Newcastle project was touted with a potential for up to 10GW.
The project proposes to deploy turbines in deep waters 20km off the city of Newcastle.
Oceanex said: "Many years of hard work and commitment have brought us to this point and we very much look forward to continuing to work with the great people of the Hunter, the Traditional Owners and all stakeholders to continue to develop the offshore wind industry in Australia, and at this moment in particular, to bring significant growth, opportunity and regional economic benefits to the Hunter."
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