Ace Business Desk – In short, BlueFloat Energy lodged an application for a feasibility licence in the Illawarra offshore wind area in 2024. Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen says he received a request from BlueFloat to pause any progress on offering licences until after the federal election.
What’s next?
The future of the Illawarra offshore wind project will not be known until after the federal election.
Federal Labour says it has delayed assessing an offshore wind zone project in the NSW Illawarra until after the federal election.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he had agreed to a request from the US-owned renewables company, BlueFloat, to consider pausing the process.
BlueFloat Energy released a brief statement on Friday explaining its request.
“In August 2024, BlueFloat Energy lodged an application for a feasibility licence in the Illawarra offshore wind area of New South Wales,” the statement read.
“The application is still under assessment. However, BlueFloat has requested that the Commonwealth government consider not offering licences in the Illawarra zone until after the upcoming federal election.”
Mr Bowen said BlueFloat had raised concerns with him about investing in the project without bipartisan support.
“The Illawarra applicant, which … already has to overcome certain obstacles in deep floating water, they have been concerned by the politics that are being created by Peter Dutton and Ted O’Brien,” he said.
Mr Bowen said he believed the request was reasonable.
“If they get a licence, they then need to proceed to the next stage, which involves spending their money on further feasibility work, further consultations, and they say, ‘If we are going to spend the money, we need a bit of certainty’.”
When approached by ABC, BlueFloat did not elaborate on why it decided to ask for a delay.
Mr Bowen confirmed that BlueFloat Energy was the only proponent that had expressed interest in the Illawarra zone and that the proposal involved “a small proportion of the entire zone.”
Public consultation on the zone began in August 2023.
Originally spanning 1,461 square kilometres, the proposed zone was reduced to 1,022 square kilometres when the federal government declared it in June 2024, covering an area between Stanwell Park and Kiama.
The federal government released a visualisation of what the farm would look like from Bulli Lookout. (Supplied: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)normal
Conflicting views
The Coalition candidates for the Illawarra and South Coast seats of Cunningham, Whitlam, and Gilmore have focused their opposition to the project during their early campaigns.
During a visit to Gilmore in June, opposition leader Peter Dutton told a media conference that it was “clear that the project shouldn’t go ahead.”
Last week, Nationals leader David Littleproud was surrounded by residents opposed to the project when he launched his party’s candidate.
Mr Bowen said the decision would not turn election battles in the Illawarra and on the South Coast into one-issue campaigns.
He said he understood communities had different views on the matter.
“There are people strongly in favour of the Illawarra wind zone. There are people strongly against that,” he said.
“I know that sometimes one side might be louder than the other.”
The Nationals said the delay was a significant win for Illawarra residents.
In a statement, Mr Littleproud said the Nationals had “fought tirelessly against Labour’s bad idea, and it was clear the local Illawarra community didn’t want it”.
“The project is clearly now in doubt, but sadly, it took the community’s passion to force this to be paused, rather than Labour listening to the locals concerns,” Mr Littleproud said.
He said a vote for Labour in Whitlam could still mean a vote for the offshore wind farm.
The federal government said in a statement that feasibility licences had been awarded for the Novocastrian Offshore Wind Farm in the Hunter and Spinifex Offshore Windfarm in the Southern Ocean, which were expected to create thousands of jobs.
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