Australia announced the first award of offshore wind sites yesterday when 12 projects totaling 25 GW received feasibility licenses. This welcomes a range of international developers to this nascent offshore wind market, including CIP, Corio, Iberdrola, Ocean Winds, RWE and Ørsted. 

Six of the 12 projects in Australia are ready to move forward with development, while another six of the feasibility licenses are subject to First Nations consultation before final approval.

The award concludes a more than 15-month process from application start to award – a timeline that the Australian government needs to greatly reduce if the other areas planned for offshore wind development should contribute significantly to the gradual coal phase-out until 2038.

However, the Gippsland area stands out compared to the other five declared or proposed areas as it is larger and has attracted a lot of developer interest leading to competition and overlapping license applications, which has prolonged the process.

So, what’s next for the projects in Gippsland?

While six projects with feasibility licenses will need to finalize the First Nations consultations, expectations are that all 12 offshore wind projects in Australia will now move forward to assess the feasibility of the awarded site. This includes site investigations, such as wind measurements and seabed surveys, as well as obtaining a commercial license and a transmission and infrastructure license to get permission to construct and operate an offshore wind farm and undersea cables.

The next milestone for these projects could be the first offtake auction in the state of Victoria, which is expected to kick off by end of 2024. However, some projects might be further along than others in terms of development and readiness to bid in the auction.

The Star of the South project, developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for over six years, looks to be leading the pack in terms of maturity, but other projects could be close followers such as the neighboring project Great Eastern by Corio. 

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