Gippsland’s most advanced offshore wind project takes major step forward with environmental review

Gippsland’s most developed offshore wind project has reached another milestone on the road to constructing up to 147 turbines in the Bass Strait, and TAFE Gippsland is already underway preparing the expected 800 workers required to complete the country’s first offshore windfarm.

What happened: Star of the South, one of Gippsland’s nine proposed offshore windfarms, has released two environmental reports for public consultation. The reports mark a major milestone in the development of Australia’s largest offshore wind zone.

What is Star of the South?

The company behind the project, Southerly Ten, says it proposes to install up to 147 turbines between 10 to 40km off Gippsland’s coast, roughly between Port Albert and Woodside Beach.

Once completed, the project is expected to provide 2.2GW of electricity, which is enough to power 1.2 million Victorian homes.

• Southerly Ten claims that one spin of an offshore wind turbine can power an average Australian home for 48 hours.

Why now? According to the state government, Victoria will need 25.5 GW of large-scale power generation (from traditional power plants or large scale wind and solar farms) by 2035.

• There are nine windfarm projects proposed for Gippsland’s Offshore Wind Zone; they're expected to provide 25GW of power once completed, according to the federal government.

If the approvals go ahead for Star of the South, the company expects construction to begin in 2030 and completion of the project to take between four and seven years.

📑 A needed report: Large projects like offshore wind developments require environmental approval from the federal and state governments to go ahead.

• Receiving public submissions on these reports is the first step in that process.

• Star of the South has released its draft Commonwealth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Victorian Environment Effects Statement (EES) for public review and comment.

Among the studies involved in the report was a marine ecology survey in the Bass Strait, which took three years to complete and involved surveys, satellite tracking and underwater monitoring to study birds, fish and other marine life.

👷 Training the workforce: Star of the South CEO, Charles Rattray, said in a statement he expects the project will generate 600 local construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs.

The head of Department for Emerging Industries and Trades at TAFE Gippsland, Alex Terranova, told the Monitor the education institution is working closely with Star of the South to prepare the workforce for offshore wind maintenance.

🗣️ “We meet regularly with them to get project status updates. [We’re talking to them about] who the contractors and the manufacturers are, so that we are working with them to understand what we should be training for.”

New centre a focus: In April this year, Gippsland TAFE opened the Clean Energy Centre, which provides access to training with large-scale renewable energy equipment.

🗣️Terranova said the skills that TAFE students are training for are in wind turbine maintenance. 

• “There's a lot of work to do to make sure they're maintained to have their full 30-year lifespan,” Terranova said.

🏗️ New training hub: In late April, the federal and Victorian governments announced a $50 million investment into renewable energy training in the state. 

• The package includes $15 million to build a new renewable energy digital training facility at TAFE Gippsland’s Morwell campus.

Wellington Shire councillor and Yarram local Garry Stephens told the Monitor he’s hopeful ongoing maintenance jobs from renewable energy projects will provide much needed job security for the region.

• 🗣️“It's important we find jobs wherever we can. We need economic development to sustain our community.”

✉️ Have your say

Submissions for the EIS and EES close on June 29 this year.

• Make a submission on Star of the South’s EIS here.

• Make a submission on Star of the South’s EES here.