Interview with Jeremy Lee, ABC South West Victoria

JEREMY LEE: You might recall a little while ago, the idea of offshore wind farms was raised. Two areas in particular have been highlighted in Victoria: an area off the coast of Gippsland, and a stretch of the Southern Ocean, from Warrnambool to Port Macdonnell in South Australia. Federal Energy and Climate Change Minister, Chris Bowen was in Portland yesterday, announcing the opening of consultation for the proposed offshore wind farm zone, which covers about 5,000 square kilometres. Chris Bowen is with you this morning. Good morning to you, Minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, Jeremy, good to chat.

JEREMY LEE: Can you start with just reminding us of the process here. So these areas in Victoria were officially declared, along with other sites in New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia, I think, last August from memory, and the discussion, of course, stretches back a bit further than that. So yesterday's announcement, was this just about clarifying this particular space, or was it a change to the proposed space?

CHRIS BOWEN: No. So you've got it a bit the wrong way around there, Jeremy, with respect. We haven't declared the zone yet. The only zone I've declared is Gippsland. So what I have said is that there are six zones around Australia that we intend to look at very closely, and we're going through them one by one. So Gippsland was the first. So to give you an idea of how the Southern Ocean zone, the Portland and associated areas all work, what they did in Gippsland is begin the process and consulted and put out a map of the area, it was a large area, close to 30,000 square kilometres, we've had two months of consultation, lots of feedback come in, both positive and negative, people with concerns, or people wanted issues addressed. Take all that into account, and then declare the final area. In the end in Gippsland was closer to 15,000 square kilometres, taking into account their concerns.

So it's a very genuine consultation process, and that's what I kicked off in Portland yesterday; put out the map and said, "This is what we're looking at, this is what we're thinking about, these are the issues we'd need feedback on."  And the consultation now will be open until the end of August, so people have a chance to have a look at the map, have a think about it, put submissions in, come to meetings, come to information sessions, and it is a very genuine consultation process about how we do this.

JEREMY LEE: Right, okay. Good, okay. I understand now. So the consultation that was referred to earlier was just for the Gippsland one, right, yes.

CHRIS BOWEN: It's confusing, yeah. That's right. It's a very exhaustive and in some ways confusing process. But it's important that we get it right. Offshore wind's going to be very important to Australia's future, but it's got implications for areas which need to be managed, very positive jobs implications, very positive energy implications, environmental concerns, First Nations concerns, fishing concerns, all which need to be managed and thought through as we do it. So it's a very open and consultative process.

JEREMY LEE: Right. So at this stage do we have any idea of the potential size of what might be developed off the coast of Southwest Victoria? I mean do you have something in mind, or a hope for what it could look like?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes, so the map I put out yesterday was close, as you said, to 5,000 square kilometres, that's what we're starting with; that's the consultation process we're beginning. That would have the capacity for up to 14 gigawatts. To give you an idea, your listeners will be thinking, "Well, how big is that?" That's enough to power 8 million homes, 8 million homes around Australia, for example. Of course it's also very important potentially for the future of Portland Smelter. They want to transition to renewable energy and offshore wind, the three big smelters in Australia, Portland, Boyne Island and Tomago are all looking very carefully at renewable energy and Tomago and Portland in particular have offshore winds as part of their future. So it's important.

Now, but of course, as I said, this is the beginning of the process, Jeremy, so this is open for two months, then I will consider all the feedback, I will consider, you know, whether people have raised legitimate concerns that we need to address, which undoubtedly some people will, then I'll declare the final zone, then the process will begin for expressions of interest. So then that's when companies put in their expressions of interest to say, "We want to put a wind farm here within the zone."  And then we'll consider all those expressions of interest, and we'll pick some. We'll work very closely with the Victorian Government. They have an offshore wind policy as well; we'll work in consultation with them.

Then there's environmental approvals to be worked through as well. So there's a lot of work to be done. Somebody asked me yesterday, "When will we see the first power?" Well, probably around 2030, because these are big projects which need careful management, and indeed, even when one gets to approval, then they've got to start putting in their orders for wind turbines, et cetera. So it's a long process.

JEREMY LEE: Just to go back a step, I mean one of the criticisms that's often levelled at wind farms and the idea of wind energy is that, of course, it's very dependent on the wind blowing. Is an offshore wind farm less of an issue in that regard? Are the winds more guaranteed when we talk about building something offshore?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah. One of the things we look at when determining where to declare a zone and how windy it is, The Southern Ocean is very windy, very windy a lot of the time, so yes, it is a more reliable source, and in particular, one of the good things about offshore wind, is it tends to be windy off our coast when it's not windy onshore. So when the wind farms   and I saw plenty in Portland on the ground yesterday   when they're not potentially working at various times of the day, we find, all the science tells us, that the offshore wind farms will be kicking in at that time, because the wind moves around.  And so that does provide for more reliable source.

Now, of course, with renewable energy the key is storage, that's why we're building lots of batteries around the country, and we're looking at pump hydro, and all sorts of other things, because yes, the sun doesn't always blow, and the wind   sorry, the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow, but neither does the rain always fall, but we drink water every day, we can store water, we can store renewable energy. So it's all part of the massive change that we have under way.

JEREMY LEE: All right. And when you mentioned that figure of potentially 8 million homes, 14 gigawatts as well, what sort of percentage does that represent of Australia's power requirement?

CHRIS BOWEN: Oh, look, when you put offshore wind together, it is very substantial. So just taking, for example   the best example I can answer your inquiry is, again, the other zone is more advanced, Gippsland. One of the proposals there called Star of the South, that would be big enough to power 20 per cent of Victoria's energy needs, that one wind farm that's been proposed and worked through off Gippsland.

So we're talking a very big proportion, because offshore wind is energy rich, because it is so windy off our shore it is energy rich. One turn of one turbine produces as much energy as the solar panels on your roof do all day. That's one turn of one turbine, produces as much energy as all the solar panels on our roof all day, and they turn, you know, about 15 times a minute, and that's one turbine. So this is very energy rich. It's also jobs reach, Jeremy, because the wind turbines move so much, they need a lot of maintenance, and because for offshore you need ships, so it's very good for ports and it's very good for maritime work as well.

JEREMY LEE: All right. We'll have to leave it there, Chris Bowen. Thank you very much for this. A lot more discussion to come.

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely, looking forward to it.

JEREMY LEE: Thanks again for your time this morning.

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes. Good on you Jeremy.