$8b plan would see Australia's first offshore wind farm built in Bass Strait

The waters off Gippsland would be home to Australia's first offshore wind farm under a radical proposal for as many as 250 turbines generating enough renewable energy to power 1.2 million homes.

This offshore wind farm is in the North Sea
near Hartlepool in the north-east of England. 

The "Star of the South" project, would supply about 18 per cent of Victoria's power usage and be connected to existing power infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley via undersea and underground cables, according to the local company behind the project, Offshore Energy.

News of the proposal comes as pressure grows on the State Government to release its long-awaited coal policy.

Latrobe City Council has called for the policy's immediate release and confirmed that it considers the Latrobe Valley's vast brown coal reserves "vital to the economy of Gippsland”.

Read Darren Gray’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “$8b plan would see Australia's first offshore wind farm built in Bass Strait.”