EDF Renewables has acquired the Newcastle Offshore Wind (NOW) floating offshore wind project that is under development in New South Wales, Australia.
Initial project developers Newcastle Offshore Wind Energy Pty Ltd (NOWE) have almost ten years of experience on the project, working closely with the EDF Renewables’ team in Australia for the last twelve months.
NOWE will continue to work on the project with the renewables unit of France’s EDF as a collaborative partnership that will be scaled up to meet the project needs, said Dave Johnson, CEO of EDF Renewables in Australia.
The 10 GW floating offshore wind project is planned to be installed near the Port of Newcastle which is located within Australia’s Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). NOW will be situated near the port and energy transmission infrastructure.
It will be developed in stages to support the Government’s renewable targets and align with the planned retirement of the coal-fired power stations in the region.
“This landmark project will be developed in collaboration with a strong local team based in Newcastle, and will require the establishment of an entirely new industry in Australia,” said Johnson.
“I am very confident that this project will play a crucial role in providing new opportunities for employment, establishing new business and the revitalisation of existing business looking to transition from existing industries.”
EDF Renewables operates seven offshore wind farms globally and has a further five under construction including its first floating wind project offshore France.
Another multi-gigawatt project that is currently under development in the Hunter-Central Coast region of New South Wales, by BlueFloat Energy and Energy Estate, is the 1.65 GW Hunter Coast floating offshore wind farm.