Ireland-based Mainstream Renewable Power and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's Reventus Power are part of a consortium with Australian companies AGL Energy and Direct Infrastructure that submitted a bid for an offshore wind feasibility licence in Australia.
The consortium is planning a 2.5GW offshore wind farm which it says could bring A$3.7bn (US$2.42bn) in economic value. The team has bid for a feasibility licence in the federal government’s first declared area OEI-01-22, covering 15,000km2 offshore Gippsland, Victoria. Bids were due to the Offshore Infrastructure Registrar by April 27, with results due later this year. The successful seven-year feasibility licence holders will be able to submit applications for a commercial licence to develop an offshore wind project.
Mainstream Renewable Power, part of Norway-based Aker Group, brings a track record in developing offshore wind farms with fixed and floating turbines in Europe and Asia. “Our 20-year-plus legacy goes back to developing the very first offshore wind farms in Ireland and the UK, including the Hornsea zone which is the world’s largest offshore wind farm in operation today,” said Mainstream’s head of offshore wind Tove Roskaft. London-based Reventus launched in 2021 to invest in offshore wind, green and blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, and is a strategic adviser and shareholder of European offshore wind developer Maple Power. Australian utility AGL Energy would be developing an offshore wind farm for the first time, but would bring benefits from its power infrastructure onshore in the Gippsland region, including the Loy Yang coal-fired power plant. Direct Infrastructure is an Australian company formed to develop three 2GW-plus offshore wind and storage projects in Australia, chaired by former Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman.
This week Belgian offshore wind developer Parkwind and Australian oil and gas company Beach Energy said they had jointly bid for a feasibility licence in the declared area. Australian utility Origin Energy and UK-based offshore wind and renewables developer RES have jointly bid, AFR reported. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cbus Super and the founders have submitted an application for the 2.2GW Star of the South project, which is the most advanced project in Australia. Ireland-based DP Energy said it was planning a Gippsland project. Macquarie's Corio Generation said it is planning a 1.5GW project and a 2.5GW project off the Gippsland coast.
