Victoria launches offshore wind auction after delays

Minister of energy and resources Jaclyn Symes opened the request for proposal process for two gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power, which the government said will provide enough energy to power around 1.5 million homes each year.

The process will allow for projects to bid for contracts and bidders will be assessed on “value for money, deliverability and benefit to local workers, businesses and communities”.

The auction will close in August 2027, with contracts to be awarded in 2028.

Catherine Bendeich, an expert in renewable energy procurement at Pinsent Masons, said: “The successful development of an offshore wind industry in Victoria, and in Australia more broadly, will require the sustained development of appropriately located deepwater ports and transmission line projects. The procurement of these will need to progress in parallel to this auction process.”

“Diversified power assets remains important considering rapidly increasing demand projections, including off the back of the growth of large-scale data centre developments," she said.

Original commitments to develop an offshore wind industry in Australia were launched in early 2022, with Gippsland identified as a proposed area for development in August 2022. The Victorian government established Offshore Wind Energy Victoria in December 2022 and feasibility applications for the Gippsland area opened in January 2023.

Bendeich said: “Of the original 12 developers who were granted feasibility licences for the Gippsland declared area, there remain nine potential participants in the offshore auction, although it is understood that not all are sufficiently advanced in their development and approvals stage to be expected to participate in this first offshore wind auction.”