{"id":86493,"date":"2025-08-22T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86493\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T03:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:11:08","slug":"offshore-wind-company-pulls-out-of-10-billion-hunter-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86493\/","title":{"rendered":"Offshore wind company pulls out of $10 billion Hunter project"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of the offshore wind industry in New South Wales has been dealt a blow after a European energy giant confirmed it was pulling out of the most advanced project in the state. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The federal government had offered a feasibility licence to a consortium involving Norwegian energy company Equinor and Australian partner Oceanex to build the Novocastrian Offshore Wind Farm off Newcastle and Port Stephen.<\/p>\n

Equinor said it would not be accepting the licence, and would withdraw its support for the project.<\/p>\n

The $10 billion farm was expected to generate 2,000 megawatts of capacity and be located 20 kilometres off the coastline.<\/p>\n

Oceanex announced the plan for the project in 2020, with the federal government granting the feasibility licence in February.<\/p>\n

The project included the use of floating foundation technology in a 500 kilometre square licence area, and was expected to create more than 3,000 jobs during construction.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Bowen says research will be undertaken to develop and test offshore renewable energy. (ABC News: Ross Nerdal)<\/p>\n

Energy Minister Chris Bowen told ABC Radio Newcastle the two partners could not agree to move forward with the project.<\/p>\n

“Equinor is withdrawing from renewable investment around the world at the moment, from Vietnam, Portugal and Spain, so that’s disappointing,” Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

He said Oceanex was too small to lead the project alone.<\/p>\n

“They need a partner, and frankly an international partner,” he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Oceanex said it was disappointed with Equinor’s decision.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to work with all to investigate how we can make offshore wind in the Hunter progress and create huge jobs and investment for the region,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

The decision came months after the collapse of the only company pursuing a project in the other NSW offshore wind zone, in the Illawarra region.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a joint statement, the Novocastrian Offshore Wind project said the decision reflected global challenges.<\/p>\n

“While we are not progressing with this feasibility licence, we believe Australia continues to have a significant role to play in the global energy transition,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

Equinor’s move came after a decision by the company to pull out of a planned wind farm in Bass Strait earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Research continues<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the federal government has continued supporting renewable technology development by releasing new guidance for research licences in declared offshore zones.<\/p>\n

“It’s a licence to do more research, pilot projects, offshore wind and other renewables in the zone,” Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

MP for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, said while she was disappointed Equinor declined the licence, more research would be a step in a positive direction.<\/p>\n

“We’re not shutting the door on more jobs and energy, we’re pursuing it,” Ms Swanson said.<\/p>\n

Call to deregister zone\"prostestors<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Port Stephens residents have protested against the project in recent years. (Supplied: Richard Fabiszewski)<\/p>\n

Port Stephens Offshore Game Fishing Club president Troy Radford led a fight against the proposed wind farm.<\/p>\n

“It’s great news for tourists, whale watchers and fishermen,” Mr Radford said.<\/p>\n

“The impact to recreational game fishing would be devastating, the area he chose is a marlin hotspot in Australia.<\/p>\n

“All the whales that migrate up and down the coast and the effects of that to tourism would be devastating.”<\/p>\n

Mr Radford said the federal government should deregister the zone altogether.<\/p>\n

“The zone that Mr Bowen picked out off Port Stephens is the worst possible spot,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the offshore wind industry in New South Wales has been dealt a blow after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28486,64555,43,44,64557,64556,64554,8146,41,39,42,40,64553],"class_list":["post-86493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-chris-bowen","tag-equinor","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-novocastrian-offshore-wind-farm","tag-oceanex","tag-offshore-wind-power","tag-renewable-energy","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wind-farm-hunter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}