"Guest speaker Andy Evans, founder and CEO of Star of the South, provided an outline of the project, the challenges involved and the steps to be taken to overcome them. He also provided a context for the project in the overall mix of power generation in the Australian grid.
The project will be Australia's first offshore wind turbines located south of Gippsland, and with a capacity of 2000MW.
Individual turbines will generate 10MW, roughly double the size of those currently used in Australia. It's location not only has environmental advantages, but also is well placed to take advantage of current grid infrastructure as coal based generation in the Latrobe Valley drops off. It also will provide economic and social benefits in the Valley communities.
Following receipt of the necessary initial approvals, principally from the Federal Government due its location in Commonwealth waters, detailed feasibility studies will be undertaken. These will take 3 years with construction a further 5 to 6 years after that.
The project is being supported by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a leading international offshore wind and infrastructure developer. Progressing the project in the current political context around energy is challenging, but Andy believes it will ultimately provide diversity in the overall generation mix in Australia and help reduce carbon emissions."
Thank you Russell a terrific summary of Andy's presentation.
