The Australian Oil & Gas Review
Funding for Star of the South
“The partnership brings together local knowledge and proven international experience that we believe will deliver many benefits for Australia, Victoria and local communities.”
AUSTRALIA’S first offshore wind farm, to be built off the coast of Victoria, has secured funding through international green energy investment fund Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). On 30 November, Melbourne-based Offshore Energy announced it had entered a partnership with CIP for the continued development of its $8 billion 2000 megawatt ‘Star of the South’ project. “Offshore Energy is delighted to partner with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, one of the leading offshore wind developers in the world, to develop Australia’s first offshore wind farm,” Offshore Energy managing director Andy Evans said. “The partnership brings together local knowledge and proven international experience that we believe will deliver many benefits for Australia, Victoria and local communities.” The company declined to reveal how much CIP had invested, but described it as a “long term serious investment for the life of the project”. Once developed, Star of the South would be built within a 574sqkm area, between 10km and 25km offshore Gippsland, and deliver 8000GWH of electricity per year; about 18 per cent of Victoria’s power usage or enough to power 1.2 million homes. It would also connect to existing infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley through underground and undersea transmission cables. Feasibility studies are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2018. Earlier this year Offshore Energy confirmed a feasibility study would take at least three years to complete.