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The Australian Government has proposed officially declaring an area of the Southern Ocean from Warrnambool to Port McDonnell in South Australia as suitable for offshore wind farms.
The proposed offshore wind area area starts 10km from the coastline and covers 5,137sqkm.
The announcement was made in Portland on June 28 by Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen. 
The Southern Ocean region is considered suitable for potential offshore wind energy projects because:
- it has strong, consistent winds;
- it is close to areas of high electricity demand including the Portland Aluminium Smelter and existing connections to the grid;
- industry is very interested in developing projects in the area;
- ageing coal-fired power stations are planning to shut down in future years; and,
- the area is within the Victorian (VIC) Government’s planned South West Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
The Australian Government is now seeking community feedback on the proposal, which has the potential to create 3,000 jobs during development and construction and a further 3,000 ongoing jobs.
A number of European countries have offshore wind farms, including Denmark. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Energy Agency have created a video that helps show what the impact of offshore wind farms looks like from a range of distances.
For more information visit the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water online consultation hub.