BlueFloat Energy has announced plans for developing a 1.7 GW floating offshore wind project off the coast of the New South Wales Hunter region in Australia.
The Eastern Rise Offshore Wind Project follows last week’s announcement by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, about the proposed offshore wind zone in the Pacific Ocean off the Hunter region of New South Wales.
BlueFloat Energy said the Eastern Rise project sits within the proposed offshore wind zone.
Nick Sankey, BlueFloat Energy’s Country Manager, said that the decision to develop a new project in the Hunter zone was based on a number of factors including the region’s history of industrial development and power generation, the quality of the wind resource, and positive stakeholder and community engagement the company has experienced there already.
“We know local communities support regional economic opportunities and are receptive to sustainable innovation. We will be working closely with the local communities to ensure this project delivers economic and environmental benefits to the area and builds on the region’s long history as a leader in energy, manufacturing and maritime industries”, said Sankey.
The Eastern Rise Offshore Wind Project is set to be delivered over a development and construction period of seven years and will have an installed capacity of 1,725 MW.
BlueFloat Energy was previously working on the very early stages of a separate project in the region, the Hunter Coast Offshore Wind Project, which is now being developed independently by Energy Estate.
So far, there are a number of offshore wind projects being proposed off the coast of New South Wales, with few of them located in the Hunter region.
Some of them include a 2 GW offshore wind project that Equinor and OceanEx unveiled in August last year and the Newcastle Offshore Wind (NOW) floating offshore wind project which was recently acquired by the French company EDF Renewables.