WIND power is the single biggest "green" contributor to Australia's electricity needs, producing slightly more in megawatt-hours than large-scale and rooftop solar combined.
According to the Clean Energy Council, wind provided 9.9 per cent of Australia's electricity last year. Capacity continues to grow, with coal increasingly on the nose because of its greenhouse gas emissions - its necessity until overnight renewable capacity is fixed notwithstanding.
Today, the Newcastle Herald looks at a new report by the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre, an international collaboration begun in April 2019 with a $70 million federal grant to specialise in aquaculture, marine renewable energy and marine engineering.
As an island continent, Australia has "very high quality and abundant offshore wind resources".
The report - Offshore Wind Energy in Australia - says more than 2000 gigawatts of wind capacity could be built on the water within 100 kilometres of existing substations as connection points.
It describes this capacity as "far in excess" of our present generation.
About 30 times as great, given the Australian electricity grid has an installed capacity of about 60 gigawatts. Our electricity consumption last year was about 265,000 gigawatt-hours.
So ocean space is not a problem.
The report says that although offshore wind is a major sector in Europe and the United Kingdom, it has been "overlooked for some time" in Australia.
To firm up its potential, the report models various wind and sun patterns in different places to see how best ocean wind farms could contribute to Australian generation.
One of the study centres is the Newcastle coast, which gets a tick for suitability.
The report also examines employment opportunities that could arise from a domestic turbine industry, and notes the role that large-scale offshore wind projects could play in a "just transition" for power station and coalmine workers.
As a way forward, the report recommends more research, a regulatory regime, and a place for offshore wind in state and federal energy planning.
This is an industry in its earliest stages.
Two of the 18 offshore wind projects noted in the report are off Newcastle, a reminder the PEP 11 gas plans aren't the only proposal aimed at the Hunter.
Surely a case of "watch this space".
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