Scientist head to sea as testing starts for offshore wind farm
NEXT STAGE: Workers receive in-depth training about the wave and wind monitoring vessels that will be stationed off the South Gippsland coast.
Deb Lucas
THE next stage is underway in the potential development of Australia’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of South Gippsland.
Scientific monitoring of wind and wave activity is set to start offshore of Port Albert.
This testing is the next phase for the Star of the South wind farm.
Training by local personnel has been carried out at Port Welshpool, along with the last-minute adjustments to monitoring vessels.
Environment and bird life monitoring will also be undertaken during this phase of the project.
This $8 billion project was given the green light by the Federal Government in March.
Since then, Star of the South staff have conduction information sessions in Gippsland, explaining the project to communities.
A Melbourne-based company, Star of South entered into partnership with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partnership in December 2017 to advance the project.
An early estimate of the number of turbines was 250, however the exact number and height of the turbines will be determined by this offshore scientific testing.
The project is expected to provide a massive 2000 mega watts of power, which equates to 18 per cent of the state’s power demands.
The site area is 496 square kilometres off Port Albert.
It is anticipated that full power could be being delivered by 2027.
The Federal Government is not providing financial support towards the wind farm.
The project is expected to provide a considerable amount of economic activity to the region, which is currently struggling due to drought and lack of job opportunities.
Short URL: http://thestar.com.au/?p=30406
Posted by Tayla Kershaw
on Nov 19 2019. Filed under Featured, News.
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