OFFSHORE Energy Chairman, Terry Kallis and Managing Director, Andy Evans have all the credentials to make it so.
Terry was the CEO of SECV and has been in the renewables game for some time with a number of successful projects under his belt.
Andy has been a lawyer for 20 years and has also been heavily involved in renewables.
In a very detailed presentation to the South Gippsland Shire Council’s meeting on Wednesday morning July 26 they laid out their master plan.
They said they didn’t want to sell false hope so waited until they were firmly on the map both in Victoria, nationally and globally before meeting with Council.
They are looking at Barry Beach as a possible site and are keen to get moving.
They assured Council that there would be minimal impact on marine life and that there will be no visual or noise impact because it is out at sea and shielded by islands.
If the project goes ahead and it looks as though it will, the capital cost will be 8 billion dollars.
There will be 2,000 direct construction jobs during construction, which will take up to 10 years and 10,000 indirect jobs.
There will be 300 ongoing jobs during the operational life of the wind farm which will be a minimum of 25 years.
The plan is to construct 250 turbines. Each blade is the size of an Airbus A380.
Offshore Energy would like to be building by 2022.
“It engenders a real sense of social pride,” said Andy. “It is a pioneering project and we have seen in Europe just what it does for a region. In Denmark they are 100% offshore renewable.”
Offshore Energy has a lot of interest out of Europe as far as investing goes.
“They have an appetite for it,” said Andy.
With the closure of Hazelwood there is a serious lack of energy sources but on the upside all the skill sets are there.
What they are trying to do has never been done before and according to Andy it has been a thankless role to get some form of rights.
The wind farm will be 3 nautical miles from the coastline and when asked by Mayor Ray Argento how they will do most of the transporting of supplies Andy said that most of the transport will be by sea.
When asked by the Mayor what Council’s role would be he was told by Andy that there would be road requirements like widening and the need to accommodate construction people coming to the area.
This kind of opportunity doesn’t come along every day and Cr Alyson Skinner said she was super excited and Cr Brunt said it was very interesting
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