The project’s lease area is about 412 square kilometres and within Australia’s first designated offshore wind zone, located about 67 kilometres off the coast.
The lease area has the potential to host a wind farm that can deliver up to two gigawatts (GW) of capacity. This is enough to power up to 1.6 million Australian homes with green electricity.
Key benefits of the Bass Strait location include:
- Consistent and strong winds that blow at times of the day when demand for electricity is at its highest.
- Water depths of about 50-60 metres.
- Access to the strongest transmission connection point in the National Electricity Market (NEM).
Offshore substations, subsea cables, onshore substations and the onshore cable route are currently planned to connect to the proposed VicGrid shared connection point which would connect the wind farm to the Latrobe Valley or other areas in Gippsland.
The Kent offshore wind farm is expected to become operational in the first half of the 2030s, subject to the timing of the planning and approvals process, secured offtake as well as grid connection.
RWE is one of the world’s largest offshore wind companies, with a more than 20-year track record of developing, building, and operating offshore wind projects. We currently operate 19 offshore wind farms and have more than 4 GW of new projects under construction in Europe, with further offshore projects under development worldwide. RWE wants to grow its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 GW today to 10 GW in 2030.
Click here to learn about how RWE’s experience in offshore wind, how the technology works and how these projects are developed.
