WRL has been closely following the developments of offshore renewable energy in Australia since November 2021, when the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Bill 2021 passed both houses of Federal Parliament. In December 2021 the bill was given assent by the Governor-General, meaning it became law.

Now the ‘Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (Cth)’ (OEI Act), establishes a regulatory framework to enable the construction, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of offshore electricity infrastructure in the Commonwealth offshore area.

On 20 February 2024, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy announced the proposed Bunbury offshore wind zone, 20km off the coast of Western Australia. Since the OEI Act was past, WRL has been contacted by an increasing amount of project developers that are interested in, or planning to develop offshore projects off WA. Now with the announcement of the proposed Bunbury wind zone, WRL expects this contact to increase dramatically.

To ensure that WRL provides condensed, accurate and timely information to these proponents, the WRL board has approved WRL’s first Industry Position Paper on Offshore Renewable Energy, which you can read using the link below.