THE TASMANIAN government on Thursday (8 June) signed a memorandum of understanding to progress the Bass Offshore Wind Energy project.
The BOWE project is a partnership between Australian energy company Nexsphere and Norwegian renewables company Equinor.
The companies plan to build a multi-gigawatt wind farm around 30 kilometres north-east of Tasmania.
Nexsphere has said previously that the BOWE project would be positioned to support the Bell Bay hydrogen hub.
Under the MoU, signed at the fifth annual Energy Development Conference in Devonport, the government and project owners would work together to have northern Tasmania declared an offshore renewable energy zone by the Australian government.
Energy and renewables minister Guy Barnett said the Tasmanian government was committed to promoting and developing the state’s ocean and tidal renewable energy resources under the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Action Plan.
“Tasmania is well placed to support the development of offshore wind energy leveraging our world class wind resource and our existing major industries and new industries including green hydrogen,” he said.
“Bass Strait has been named as one of the top options for offshore wind energy generation in the country identified by the Australian Energy Market Organisation and the national Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre.”
Nexsphere and Equinor believe the BOWE project would create employment opportunities during the development, delivery, management and operational phases of the project including research, marine and structural engineering, vessel fleet and delivery headquarters, yard and port operations.
