Australia has many areas that may be suitable for offshore wind. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water regulates offshore wind and other offshore renewable energy technologies in Commonwealth waters under the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (OEI Act) and the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Regulations 2022 (see also the associated Regulatory Levies Act, Regulatory Levies Regulations and Consequential Amendments Act).Commonwealth waters start 3 nautical miles from the coastline and extend to the boundary of Australia’s exclusive economic zone.The OEI Act enables the construction, operation and decommissioning of offshore wind farms. They outline how and where offshore wind projects can operate. Projects regulated under the OEI Act include:offshore wind and solar farmswave energy plantsundersea electricity interconnectors.Enabling the offshore wind industry supports the Australian Government’s aim to:reduce emissions from the electricity sectorincrease affordable electricity supplycreate jobs.Declaring suitable areas for offshore wind is a ministerial decision. Our department advises the Minister for Climate Change and Energy on suitable areas in consultation with:other Australian Government departments and agenciesstate and territory governmentsindustry stakeholderslocal communitiesthe Australian public.Considering a specific area for declaration requires a 60-day public consultation process. It will take into account factors including impacts on existing marine users.The Offshore Renewable Energy Infrastructure 2021 dataset contains areas showing a reference area of proposed and declared areas suitable for offshore wind. These are for illustrative purposes only and must be used with the GDA94 coordinate system. Proposed areas are areas which have been publicly announced and are currently or have previously been open for consultation, and may be awaiting final ministerial declaration decisions. Declared areas have been formally declared as suitable for offshore wind by the Minister, and are now open to feasibility licence applications for proponents to conduct further feasibility studies and consultations. The declared area data is a digital representation of lines and zones established under legislation. In the event of an inconsistency between this data and the legislation, the latter prevails.Gippsland Declared Area is the area made up of the areas specified in Schedules 1, 2, and 3 the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure (Declared Area OEI-01-2022) Declaration 2022 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2022L01736).Hunter Declared Area is the area made up of the areas specified in Schedule 1 of the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure (Declared Area OEI-01-2023) Declaration 2023 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2023L01005).Southern Ocean Declared Area is the area made up of the areas specified in Schedule 1 of the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure (Declared Area OEI-01-2024) Declaration 2024 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2024L00287/asmade/text).© Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) 2022.
OverviewAustraliadeclared areasoffshoreproposed areasrenewable energy
Additional Information
KeyValue
dcat_issued2024-01-17T01:06:33.000Z
dcat_modified2024-06-18T01:42:24.314Z
dcat_publisher_nameDepartment of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water
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harvest_source_idb4a641fd-7000-437a-b9f4-322aa6e83b11
harvest_source_titleAustralian Marine Spatial Information System (AMSIS)