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Australia’s Victoria state on Friday set targets of at least 2 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2032, and 9 GW by 2040, setting up ambitious goals to help fill a gap in power supply as coal-fired plants shut down.
Australia, currently has no offshore wind farms.
Victoria’s offshore wind plan, which includes a 2035 target of 4 GW, follows a commitment last November by the Victorian government to provide A$40 million ($29 million) to run feasibility and pre-construction studies for three projects, which could generate a total 4.7 GW.
The most advanced of those is the A$9 billion ($7 billion) Star of the South project, aiming for a capacity of up to 2.2 GW, led by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
“Offshore wind is no longer a possibility, it’s becoming a certainty,” Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton said in a statement.
Victoria’s coal-fired power plants are due to shut by 2045, but industry experts expect them to close well before that as coal-fired power becomes increasingly uncompetitive amid rapid growth in wind and solar capacity.
