Offshore wind developer BlueFloat pulls out of NZ

Thursday, 24 October 2024

The development of offshore wind in NZ appears further in doubt after one of two consortiums exploring the opportunity pulled the plug.

BlueFloat Energy, which had been leading one of two rival consortia intending to spend billions of dollars developing wind farms offshore from New Zealand, is pulling out of the country.

Labour Party energy spokesperson Megan Woods was quick to blame the Government, and its decision to fast-track a seabed mining scheme offshore from Taranaki, for the decision.

Bluefloat country manager Nathan Turner said the Spanish firm had decided to cease the development of offshore wind projects in New Zealand following a review.

“BlueFloat Energy continues to believe that offshore wind offers a strategic opportunity for New Zealand, in terms of both decarbonisation and economic development,” he said.

“However, our decision to cease developments here reflects a number of key uncertainties about how the market for offshore wind will develop in the country – including both route to market and allocation of seabed,” he said.

Energy Minister Simeon Brown and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop announced in August they would introduce legislation to enable a regime for permitting offshore wind farms to be in place by mid-next year.

But Woods said the Government had created an uncertain environment for investors in offshore wind by including Trans Tasman Resources’ proposed seabed mining scheme in its fast-track consenting regime.

Labour energy spokesperson Megan Woods says the Government sent the nascent industry “a clear message”.

Both Bluefloat and rival offshore wind consortium Taranaki Infrastructure Partners had warned the ironsands mining project would be incompatible with their goal of establishing large wind farms in their preferred area of the South Taranaki Bight.

Woods said BlueFloat had got a clear message that they're “not the future that this government envisions for New Zealand”.

The Government was putting the country’s energy security at risk and driving away billions of dollars in investment and an industry that could create 12,000 jobs, she said.

“It is a very sad day for New Zealand.”

It was notable that BloatFloat was retaining its operations in Australia, she added.

Brown said in a statement that BlueFloat had made a “commercial decision to focus their operations in other jurisdictions rather than New Zealand”.

“Unfortunately, when we were elected policy decisions to enable an offshore wind regulatory regime had not been undertaken and we have since moved at pace to ensure legislation can be brought to Parliament to enable offshore wind as soon as possible,” he said.

Bishop said in Parliament that “just because the seabed mining scheme has been fast-tracked does not mean consent will be granted”.

If seabed mining did take place, that could be subject to conditions put in place by an “expert panel”, he also noted.

“I think it's possible to have seabed mining and offshore wind. We're keen on both,” he told The Post.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has indicated approval for the Taranaki seabed mining scheme is not at this point a done deal.

Taranaki Offshore Partnership’s continued interest in developing an offshore wind farm has at times also appeared in doubt as a result of the fast-tracking of the seabed mining scheme.

It is a joint venture between wind developer Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and the NZ Super Fund.

Taranaki Offshore Partnership said in a statement that BlueFloat’s decision to cease work on its two proposed offshore wind farms in Taranaki and Waikato reflected the complexity of the challenges that New Zealand needed to address to enable the development of offshore wind.

Those included the finalisation of an appropriate regulatory framework, strategic planning around enabling infrastructure, and “balancing competing demands from other industries”, it said, in an apparent reference to the seabed mining project.

“For our part, Taranaki Offshore Partnership remains committed to continuing our feasibility investigations in New Zealand, leveraging our joint venture partners’ track record of developing and delivering offshore wind farms globally and access to capital,” it said.

CIP director Giacomo Caleffi told The Post earlier this month that a green light for ironsands mining off the coast of Taranaki could kill investors’ interest in building wind farms both there and offshore from Waikato, however.

That would mean developers giving up on New Zealand completely in the near term, he warned.

The Government appeared to be hoping that the conflict between seabed mining and offshore wind would “go away of its own accord”, he said then.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment advised Resources Minister Shane Jones in June that offshore wind was “widely held to be the single biggest opportunity for Taranaki’s future economic wellbeing”.

Caleffi warned earlier this month that taking South Taranaki off the map for international investors in offshore wind would be “a strong signal in the wrong direction”.

“It would make us wonder whether we're here for the right reasons,” he said then.