Interview with Selina Green, ABC South East SA

SELINA GREEN: A couple of hundred kilometres of our Southern Ocean coastline could be unlocked to become an offshore wind farm zone, stretching all the way From Warrnambool in Western Victoria to Port MacDonnell here in the South East potentially creating hundreds of ongoing jobs in the region. The Energy Minister Chris Bowen in Portland last week to announce the start of the consultation process on this zone, Portland being home to onw of the country’s largest smelters and draws on significant amount of electricity. The Minister says the proposed zone would apply to a 5,100-square-kilometre area off our coastline. To talk more about this morning, I am joined by Chris Bowen, who’s the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. We thank you very much for your time this morning.

CHRIS BOWEN: My pleasure, Selina. Good morning.

SELINA GREEN: Just, firstly, why this location have you highlighted as a potential offshore wind zone?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes, certainly, and maybe just to take it back a step why offshore wind is important as well, offshore wind is very common around the world, but not in Australia, and Australia is the world’s largest island so it makes sense for us. And it’s very windy off our coast and it’s very useful because it’s often windy off the coast when it’s not so windy onshore. So, it’s a very important part of our future energy mix. One turn of one turbine offshore is the equivalent of all the power that your solar panels on your roof would generate all day and they turn around 15 times a minute. So, it’s very energy-rich and it’s also very jobs rich because they need a lot of maintenance and they’ve got that – that’s a lot of ports et cetera.

And then as for the zones, we’ve identified six zones around Australia and we’re in the process of going through and consulting about each of them and the Southern Ocean zone is the most recent one. So, I declared the first zone, which is off Gippsland, in the process of working through Hunter, and now I have opened the consultation on the Southern Ocean zone.

And to your question about why we picked these zones, there’s a couple of things Selina. One, it’s very windy. It’s a very good wind resource. Two, often it’s linked to areas undergoing economic change or, three, big energy users in those zones who need that offshore wind – and the Portland smelter is one good example. Smelters are very big energy users and most of the smelters around Australia – there’s not that many of them, but they’re looking at offshore wind very, very carefully as a good renewable energy source.

So, offshore wind is very important for a clean energy future. We also need to get it right. That’s why we’re consulting at the moment about the zones and in particular where the Southern Ocean zone would go.

SELINA GREEN: You mentioned there about I guess some of the benefits of going offshore as opposed to onshore. Obviously, offshore you don’t have those topography issues of accessing the wind, but I imagine it also then throws up some pretty big challenges as well trying to get that energy then back connected into the grid as well.  

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, there’s cables back to the shore, but another reason that we look at the various zones is where the grid is strong and there’s a lot of transmission infrastructure already, where we don’t need to build kilometres of transmission lines. Take Gippsland, for example, where there’s a lot of coal fired power stations or Southern Ocean zone where there’s a lot of transmission into the Portland smelter, for example. A lot of infrastructure already exists so that’s another thing that we do take into account.

SELINA GREEN: We’ve seen a lot of people asking and this very much depends on where a farm or these turbines end up being built, but people are wondering will they see anything? Will it make any visual difference to have an offshore wind farm or wind zone along the coast? This area that you are proposing, just how close is it to the coastline?

CHRIS BOWEN: At its closest, it’s 10 kilometres, so you can see them at 10 kilometres, but, you know, they’re not in your face and obviously the further out you go, the less you see them, until eventually you don’t. But you think about a cargo ship going past or in some cases, not so much yours, but oil rigs or gas rigs off the coast, you can see them in some instances, but other instances you can’t.

I guess that gets to the point of some of the things we take into account when consulting, Selina, about where the zone should go. So, just to talk you through quickly where we’re up to, I’ve announced the beginning of consultation. I’ve put out a draft map. It is a draft, which is now open for consultation about where the zone will go. We’ll take into account community feedback and in a moment we’ll get to how that community feedback is worked through, but we’ll consider options. We’ll consider issues like visual amenity, what people say about where the zone is, where it should be placed, impact on existing industries, impact on marine life, impact on environment, when we’re coming to finalise the exact borders of the zone.

And all these things have already been taken into account to a certain degree, but, of course, we don’t have all the answers, all the information. That’s why we put the map out to say, “Okay; here’s a draft. What do people think?” And that’s where we’re up to at the moment.

SELINA GREEN: Speaking with Chris Bowen this morning, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. We’re talking about a proposed offshore wind zone that stretches from Warrnambool in western Victoria to Port MacDonnell here in the south east, and that consultation process is open as we speak. You mentioned there about looking at some of the potential impacts, especially to marine life. Obviously, we have a thriving rock lobster fishing industry here in the South East and some of the members of that industry have already expressed concerns. How much due diligence will there be to ensure there aren’t adverse effects to the local wildlife, whether that be lobsters, whales, because it does seem that’s a legitimate concern of people in the area at the moment?

CHRIS BOWEN: Absolutely, it’s legitimate and again we work those issues through very carefully. So, I guess I’d take them in two parts. One is marine life not related to industry, so whale migration and bird migration, all that is taken into account very seriously. Now, of course, offshore wind zones all coexist with marine life and whales are used to navigating different hazards whether they be oil rigs or gas rigs or cargo ships or cruise ships, but we do take it all, including bird life. And then even when I’ve declared the zone, Selina, then there’s an expression of interest process for wind farms to exist within that zone and there’s environmental considerations that go into place as well.

But nevertheless, we have taken into account in the draft zone, but again as I said, there’s an opportunity for people to have their say. I’ll give you an example Selina. Obviously, you know, I’m not going to pre-empt what I decide in relation to the Southern Ocean zone until I’ve seen all the feedback, positive and negative, all the different views. I’ll lay all that out very carefully, but in the Gippsland zone, which I have already declared, much bigger, much bigger than this zone. It started at roughly 30,000 square kilometres. After all the community feedback was taken into consideration, the area I finally declared was much closer to 15,000 square kilometres. So, it is a very genuine process where I take into account all the views, all the submissions that we receive, look through them and then make what I think on balance is the best judgement I can in the national interests and in the interests of the communities as well.

SELINA GREEN: Minister, let’s talk about some of the potential benefits for this region. What would be in it for the people of the South East? Are there any flow on benefits in terms of jobs, in terms of guarantees about cheaper power as well?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, certainly renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy so that’s point 1. In the zone that I’ve put out so far, if that was the zone that I finally settled on, we think that that could hold around 14 gigawatts worth of power. That’s enough for eight million homes so that’s a lot of energy.

And then one of the things not so much when declaring the zone but more when we look at the expressions of interest about which wind farms would be allowed to operate within that zone, and certainly working with both state governments, Victoria and South Australia, we’d look at local jobs plans, local industry plans. Obviously, there’s wind turbine manufacturing in Victoria but also job creation in the ports as well.

And again, to give you another example – and I’m using Gippsland because it’s further down the road in terms of progress than the Southern Ocean wind zone, but there’s one wind farm being developed there called Star of the South and they have a very big document which they’ve shared with their community about all the jobs that will be available there, what people could apply for, what arrangements are available for people transitioning out of coal-fired power stations, for example. So, if the zone, again, looks like the one that I put out for consultation, our estimate is 3,000 construction jobs and 3,000 jobs ongoing as well.

SELINA GREEN: Now, the consultation process runs for a few more weeks. I think it’s until 31 August. So, to the end of next month.

CHRIS BOWEN: Quite a long period because we want to give people plenty of chance to have a look at it, have a think about it. There’s no need to rush your submission in today, but you do need to have it in before 31 August and that is a long process deliberately, actually required under the law, but also – in the law that we set up, but also one that we take very seriously as well.

SELINA GREEN: About to give out the dates of some of the face-to-face consultations that are happening here as well, but, Minister, when do you expect all together that a decision could come back?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, it won’t be immediately after 31 August. It will take some time to look through all the submissions and weigh it up and consider everything, but again to give you an example so far, on the Hunter we put that out earlier this year for consultation. I’m about to announce my decision on that. So, it takes a few months, but certainly this year. Selina, certainly this year I would be looking to declare a zone and have announced my decision about exactly where it will be, and to have taken into account all the feedback, positive and negative, from all the affected communities in determining that final decision.

SELINA GREEN: Chris Bowen, thank you very much for making time for us this morning. We do appreciate it.

CHRIS BOWEN: Great pleasure. Thanks for having me on and I’m sure that you can, through the process, remind people about the consultation and how they can do it, Selina. Good on you for giving it publicity.