Abstract
BlueFloat Energy is planning to develop offshore wind energy within Commonwealth marine waters, offshore of the Gippsland area in Victoria. This will be known as the Greater Gippsland Offshore Wind Project (OWP). The site sits within the Bass Strait region of the proposed Gippsland Declared Area, which is intended to be the first such offshore wind priority area to be declared under the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (Cth).
This preliminary scoping study of the marine environmental attributes and values supports:
- A referral under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) for potential impacts to Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES)
- A referral under the Environment Effects Act 1978 (Vic) (EE Act).
The objectives of this scoping study are to:
- develop a first-pass assessment of marine environmental, social or economic values and associated constraints for the Study Area
- undertake a first-pass assessment of potential impacts to the marine environment as a result of planning, construction, operation and decommissioning of the project at both a Commonwealth and State level
- inform decision-making about the level of assessment required once the project receives approval to proceed to the next phase
- inform the development of Scoping Requirements for further environmental assessment of the project.
The assessment has been informed by desktop investigations and publicly available information only; no field work, monitoring or modelling has been undertaken to date.