Heidi Sick and Maya Malik
International design, engineering and advisory company, Aurecon has announced its key advisor role to the Elanora Offshore wind project. The five-gigawatt project is seeking to become one of the first-to-build offshore wind farms in Australia.
Located off the coast of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia’s first declared offshore wind zone, Elanora Offshore could provide sufficient clean power to meet 40 per cent of Victoria’s current energy needs, avoiding 600 million tonnes of carbon emissions over the project lifetime. The project expects to create over 3000 direct jobs during construction and 320 during operations.
Aurecon has provided the Elanora Offshore consortium with advice on environment, planning, transmission and local harbours, as well as supported general project management.
Heidi Sick, Industry Director, Energy at Aurecon said, “We’re excited to be working on the Elanora Offshore wind farm, a ground-breaking project in the wind energy space. Tapping Victoria’s unparalleled wind resource, projects like Elanora Offshore can play a crucial part in advancing the energy transition in Australia.”
“We understand the national electricity market and have experience across the full spectrum of the energy chain globally. A key differentiator of our offering is the capability to deliver integrated engineering and advisory services.”
Gippsland represents a hot spot for offshore wind, with over 30 proposals for large wind farms already submitted to the government.
“With its financial strength, offshore wind expertise, local know-how, supply chain access and offtake solutions, we are confident in the success of Elanora Offshore and look forward to working on the next phase of this monumental project,” added Heidi.
Elanora Offshore CEO, Maya Malik said the consortium valued the high-quality support provided by Aurecon. “It was really important to the Elanora Offshore consortium to get the best advisors onboard for this project. We’re deeply committed to the success of offshore wind in Australia, and we want to see it done right.”
Feasibility Licenses are expected to be awarded by the end of 2023. If successful, the first phase of Elanora Offshore will be operational by 2032, with the second phase completed by end 2034.
The Elanora Offshore consortium consists of KIMAenergy, EnergyAustralia, Boskalis, Respect Energy and Polpo Investments.
