“The fact that Jacinta Allan has belled the cat the way she has, saying ‘our renewable energy transition will stop at no cost regardless of the impact on the environment’, does rather highlight the hypocrisy of what’s going on here.
“Transitioning to renewables, we are told, is all about protecting the environment and saving the planet. But trashing the planet on the way to saving it does not make sense. We wouldn’t do it for a coal mine, and we wouldn’t do it for a gas project.”
Wind ventures have since named several potential alternative sites to the Port of Hastings, both on the Victorian coast and in Tasmania.
But they warned that blocking the flagship site for a service port for the emerging mega-industry in Gippsland risked further delaying development of a sector that would be critical for decarbonising Victoria’s energy supply and security.
“This has delayed the delivery of a suitable port facility for offshore wind because time will have to be taken to re-evaluate and consider other options,” said Carolyn Sanders, head of operations at Japanese-based Flotation Energy, adding it was uncertain whether that would delay the whole industry development.
“We can’t develop renewable energy to save the environment at an unacceptable cost to the environment, so it’s right that we are carefully considering all of these decisions,” she said.
“But there is a necessity to make haste as well: we can’t delay forever because we’ll end up with a terrible outcome for our climate and our wellbeing if we don’t have sufficient power available into the 2030s.”
The Victorian government’s offshore wind team advised prospective project developers in the Gippsland licensing round on Monday that it was assessing the feedback from the Commonwealth on the Hastings project but that expected timings for milestones in the process, including the auctioning of generation contracts, was so far unchanged.
Modifications considered
State government-owned Port of Hastings has said it is examining its options after Ms Plibersek’s ruling and is expected to look to modify the project proposal.
Still, industry sources say the Hastings project, while the leading support project for the offshore wind industry, was never going to be able to provide all the services expected to be needed during the construction phase.
The country’s most advanced offshore wind venture, Star of the South, is understood to have several other port options under consideration, including the Barry Beach terminal and Port Anthony, Geelong and Bell Bay in Tasmania.
Ms Sanders said Flotation Energy was also eyeing Barry Beach, Port Anthony and Bell Bay, but that Port of Hastings “seemed like a good option” and had been the focus of the company’s plans to service its project.
However, one lead contender as an alternative site, Qube Holdings’ proposed expansion of the former ExxonMobil terminal at Barry Beach almost 200 kilometres east of Melbourne in Corner Inlet, also sits within a Ramsar area: the Corner Inlet-Nooramunga wetlands.
Qube is examining whether the Barry Beach terminal, which it operates on behalf of Exxon and currently services the oil and gas fields off the Gippsland coast, can be developed into an operational and maintenance facility for offshore wind, involving running crews out to service turbines, providing maintenance and other services.
While the site also sits within a Ramsar area, it involves a much smaller impact in terms of area than the Hastings project. Qube declined to comment.
Meanwhile, alternative ports at Geelong and Bell Bay in Tasmania are much more distant, adding to costs. Every additional kilometre that service vessels need to travel to reach turbine sites would mount up for an industry that already faces significant cost pressures, industry executives say.
Former Victorian Labor strategist turned pollster Kos Samaras slammed the federal government’s blocking of the terminal.
“Europe has well over 5000 offshore wind turbines in operation. Australia? One big fat zero. In Australia, more is blocked than built. It’s a doctrine that will bite our country severely on the backside,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
“Wetlands will all get wiped out when humanity fails to fully shift off their reliance on fossil fuels. Cost/reward impact methodology is clearly no longer a factor.”
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