The developers of one of Australia’s first offshore wind farms have published a visual ‘simulation’ of the project, which it hopes will help stakeholders understand its potential visual impacts.
The Gippsland Offshore wind farm is being proposed by BlueFloat Energy and Energy Estate, and could provide 1.28GW of generation capacity from wind turbines located 10 to 30 kilometres off the Victorian coast.
The simulation of the wind farm’s layout – available online and commissioned by the consortium, is part of efforts to provide an indication to stakeholders about what the wind farm may look like when completed.
BlueFloat Energy’s country manager for Australia, Nick Sankey, says the process undertaken by company PlainConcepts, to translate the proposed layout of the Gippsland offshore wind project into a visual map provide a realistic representation of what the real-world visibility of the wind farm would be.
“The process to create the 3D simulation is complex and involves the use of panoramic photographs (taken by a local photographer) from a number of locations), trigonometry, data points and digital technology,” Sankey said.
“The output is a realistic and scientifically rigorous visual representation of an offshore wind project.”
The partnership between Energy Estate and BlueFloat is also progressing plans for offshore projects off the coast of New South Wales, within regions planned for the Hunter and the Illawarra renewable energy zones.
Across the three projects, the BlueFloat Energy and Energy Estate partnership is hoping to build as much as 4,300MW of new offshore wind capacity.
Energy Estate’s director of partnerships, Rosie King, said that simulations will be produced for all three offshore wind projects.
“We will be doing the same for our other two projects in NSW (the Hunter Coast Offshore Wind Project and the Wollongong Offshore Wind Project) shortly,” King said.
“These simulations authentically and honestly demonstrate the extent to which the coastal landscape and the seascape can absorb the visual change resulting from the installation of wind turbines and associated infrastructure”
King also welcomed an earlier announcement from the Victorian state government that it would prioritise the Gippsland region for the development of Australia’s first offshore wind projects.
“Following the government’s announcement of the Bass Strait-Gippsland region as the first priority area for the development of offshore wind projects, we are excited to be demonstrably progressing our project in that region with the release of our visual stimulation,” King said.
