The Rockliff Liberal Government welcomes the announcement by Nexsphere and Equinor on their partnership to progress the Bass Strait Offshore Wind Energy project.
It is exciting to see the State’s offshore wind resource attracting high calibre renewable energy proponents.
The Bass Strait Offshore Wind Energy Project is proposed to be located off the North-East Coast, with up to 2.5GW of capacity delivered across multiple stages.
"The Rockliff Liberal Government is committed to promoting and developing Tasmania’s ocean and tidal renewable energy resources under the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Action Plan, Guy Barnett, Minister for Energy and Renewables said.
"Tasmania is well placed to support the development of offshore wind energy leveraging our world class wind resource and our existing interconnector experience with Basslink and Marinus Link.
"We also have world-leading international marine experience with the Australian Maritime College and the Blue Economy CRC, both based in Launceston.
"Bass Strait has been named as one of the top options for offshore wind energy generation in the country by the national Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre,’’ Minister Barnett said.
An important step has been the declaration of an offshore zone under the federal Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021.
Offshore wind developments have the potential to be an important contributor to meeting the State’s legislated target to double renewable energy generation by 2040 and our green hydrogen plans.
Meeting Tasmania’s renewable energy target is important if we are going to keep growing our economy and for access to affordable, reliable and clean energy in our State and keeping downward pressure on electricity prices.