Webinar: New Research on Offshore Wind Energy in Australia
Thursday 22nd July, 11am – 12.30pm (AEST)
The Offshore Wind Potential for Australia project evaluated the feasibility and potential of offshore wind to contribute to Australia’s energy needs and identify barriers to its large-scale development.
You and your team are invited to this upcoming webinar to launch the report and discuss the key findings and recommendations. The event will be of interest to those involved in planning and preparing for the Australian energy transition and anyone with an interest in renewable energy, including advocates and investors.
Offshore wind is booming globally, with increased turbine sizes and reduced costs. Australia has very high quality and abundant offshore wind resources, and over 16 GW of offshore wind projects are currently proposed.
While the potential for offshore wind in Australia has been overlooked for some time, the development of floating offshore wind turbines, the contribution offshore wind can make to diversifying energy supply, its high-capacity factors, very large-scale projects, and employment for workers in fossil fuel industries means that the potential for offshore wind must be re-considered.
The project involved high-level mapping to evaluate the quality of Australia’s offshore wind energy resources and investigating 12 locations around the Australian coast that are adjacent to energy infrastructure and demand centres. Additionally, a comparative analysis of the generation profile of offshore wind energy was conducted along with its employment potential.
The project, conducted over a period of three months, bought together expertise from CSIRO, Saitec Offshore, University of Technology Sydney, the Marine Union of Australia along with contributions from the Electrical Trades Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and Australian Council of Trade Unions and a number of Australian offshore wind developers.
The webinar will feature key authors and project partners presenting report findings and recommendations, and discussing the implications for the future of Australian energy supply, followed by a Q&A.
Presenters
Name: Michele O’Neil
Affiliation: President, Australian Council of Trade Unions
Michele is the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. She began her working life as a waitress, went on to work in the community sector with homeless young people and to then work in the clothing industry. Before being elected as ACTU President in 2018, Michele represented workers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry as an organiser and then Branch and National Secretary of the TCFUA (Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia). She represented her union Nationally and Internationally and led campaigns to win world leading rights for workers throughout clothing supply chains. A model of supply chain accountability for workers which increased pay and conditions for some of Australia’s most exploited workers.
Following the amalgamation of the TCFUA and the CFMEU Michele was CFMEU Vice President. As ACTU President, Michele is the Chair of the ACTU Climate Action Group.
Name: Dr Mark Hemer
Affiliation: BE CRC Offshore Renewable Energy Systems Program Leader and Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO
Dr Mark Hemer is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO’s program coordinator for the Australian Climate Service, and leads the Offshore Renewable Energy Systems research program of the Blue Economy CRC.
Mark is a meteorological oceanographer with over 20 years of postdoctoral experience, recognised internationally by his research investigating climatological variability and change in marine wind and wave conditions, and the implications for marine and coastal industry, infrastructure, communities and environments. He occupies several national and international roles spanning these interests. He has over 15 years of research spanning offshore renewable energy resources and sector development in Australia, translating science to industry.
Name: Dr Sven Teske
Affiliation: Associate Professor and Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Sven Teske is an Associate Professor and Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney with a research focus on energy decarbonisation pathways for specific industry sectors and regions.
Dr Teske has over 20 years’ experience in renewable energy market and policy analysis as well as solar and on- and offshore wind power grid integration concepts in public grids. Among his areas of expertise are decentralized energy and renewable energy system analysis, modelling, electrification concepts for least developed countries, and 100% renewable energy pathways for CVF countries. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Flensburg in Germany.
Name: Dr Chris Briggs
Affiliation: Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney and Technical Director, Business Renewables Centre
Dr Chris Briggs has a combination of climate, energy and labour market expertise developed over 20 years of experience working in roles as a political adviser, policymaker, program leader and researcher.
Recent and current projects include a survey of jobs in renewable energy for the Clean Energy Council, employment and material requirements for transmission and the Renewable Energy Zones (Infrastructure Australia & AEMO), the implications of just transition for the finance sector (NAB and Global Compact Network), social licence and renewable energy power purchase agreements (Business Renewables Centre-Australia) and energy efficiency supply chains (Victorian Department of Water, Environment, Land and Planning).
Facilitator
Name: Dr Gunilla Burrowes
Affiliation: HonFIEAust, Board Member, Blue Economy CRC
Dr Gunilla Burrowes has over 30 years of corporate experience across academia and industry and is passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and improving diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Gunilla is a pillar of the Newcastle innovation ecosystem, having co-founded her own tech company, BlueZone Group in 2000. She is the inaugural Chair of Eighteen04 (an inspirational co-working and incubator space for companies scaling in the clean tech and smart city area) and an instigator of Hunter iF project (an open consortium of leading organisations in the Hunter that supports the growing startup ecosystem in the region). She is a member of the Hunter Angels and has been an Angel Investor for over 10 years.
Along with Gunilla’s industrial expertise and her pro-active fostering of innovation across the region, she’s also co-founder of a consultancy, Gender Matters that advises organisations on gender equity and has a unique approach to mitigating cognitive bias in decision-making. She has graduated from the AICD Directors Course and is on numerous company boards including SwitchDin, the Blue Economy and SmartCrete CRC’s.
