Federal Whitlam MP Stephen Jones, Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes at Port Kembla Steelworks to announce the declaration of an Illawarra offshore wind zone. Photo: Jen White.
An offshore wind zone has been declared for the Illawarra, to sit 20 km off the coast and a third of the size of the originally proposed area.
Surrounded by a large media pack, BlueScope representatives and local MPs, Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen visited Port Kembla Steelworks on Saturday (15 June) morning to declare the zone.
The amended zone will exclude significant environmental areas including the Biologically Important Area for the Little Penguin, the Shelf Rocky Reef Key Ecological Feature and the Southern Right Whale migration and reproduction area.
The final area for the zone is 1022 square km, reduced from the proposed 1461 sq km. It has the potential to generate an estimated 2.9 GW of electricity, enough to power 1.8 million homes.
Mr Bowen was quick to point out that the declaration of the zone was “just the beginning” of the process and the Illawarra would not be seeing wind turbines off the coast “next week, next month or next year”.
Now the area has been declared, feasibility licence applications will open on Monday for individual offshore wind projects.
Applicants will need to show how they will support workforce and energy security, protect the environment and how the marine space can be shared with shipping, tourism and fishing industries.
“We can now get on with the job but there’s a lot more to go. There are licence applications which will involve community consultation, there’ll need to be environmental approvals for every particular project,” Mr Bowen said.
“Every licence application will need to show me not only community benefit, but also environmental plans and First Nations engagement, ensuring that First Nations’ views are taken into account by the applicant, archaeology offshore is protected, any sacred sites are protected.”
Mr Bowen addressed criticisms of the project, particularly from the Illawarra’s vocal anti-wind-farm groups.
“This is important for renewable energy and important for jobs, but this is also a balanced declaration,” he said.
“We have listened to community concerns, many, many submissions, many concerns raised.
“We’ve sorted through legitimate issues and legitimate concerns which have been raised on behalf of the community.
The amended, smaller area proposed for the Illawarra wind zone. Photo: DCCEEW.
“We’ve sorted out misinformation and disinformation and I have declared a zone which is smaller than that originally proposed and further away from the coast.
“One of the concerns raised was visual amenity in this beautiful part of the world. To ensure that visual amenity is protected, we’ve moved the zone to 20 kilometres away – on most days you won’t see wind turbines.
“We’ve also taken into account environmental concerns and shipping issues to ensure a balanced proposal.”
Mr Bowen said an offshore wind zone would bring new employment opportunities to the Illawarra, creating an estimated 1740 new jobs during construction and 870 ongoing jobs.
BlueScope’s general manager of manufacturing David Scott welcomed the announcement, and said it had the potential to supply significant quantities of renewable energy to help underpin BlueScope’s decarbonisation of iron and steelmaking in Australia.
“We know that we will need large amounts of renewable energy to meet our greenhouse gas emissions intensity-reduction targets and to achieve our goal of net zero by 2050,” he said.
“This announcement also supports investment in local manufacturing and jobs and job creation in the Illawarra through the building of a domestic renewable-energy components supply chain, with steel being a vital component of the construction of offshore wind towers.
“So as Australia’s largest steelmaker, we are ready, willing and able to continue our collaboration with the Federal Government to accelerate our transition towards green iron and steelmaking.”
Federal Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes said changes to the original proposal were a “sensible compromise that reflected the majority of community opinion, while helping to achieve our shared goals of more renewable energy, more jobs and fewer emissions”.
“My expectation is that all proponents not only make sure that their projects meet the highest environmental standards but also incorporate local content, including the use of locally produced steel and local workforce, and develop a strong benefit-sharing scheme so that our community meaningfully benefits from hosting an offshore wind farm should one be developed,” she said.
For more information, visit the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Illawarra offshore wind area site.
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