Alinta eyes location for $4b offshore wind farm in new zone

The federal government's official declaration of a scaled-back offshore wind zone this week meant the company's initial plan to be sited close to the Portland Aluminium Smelter was now off the table.

The company has confirmed it would now search for an appropriate location for its Spinifex project within the new zone.

Alinta's chief development officer Ken Woolley said the declaration of the zone was "excellent news".

"We're pleased to see this key milestone reached off the back of very important stakeholder feedback and consultation processes," Mr Woolley said.

"With a potential customer and connection point in the Portland Aluminium Smelter still within reach, we're confident that we can make timely progress on the Spinifex Offshore Wind project from this point forward."

Despite the change of location, the scope of the project hasn't changed with the company still planning to build a one gigawatt windfarm with each turbine producing between 15 to 20 megawatts of power.

That could see up to 70 turbines sited 15 to 20 kilometres off the coast for that project alone.

The reduced zone and distance from the shore would still allow for fixed-bottom turbines.

The Spinifex wind farm would also still connect back to the Portland Aluminium Smelter most likely via an undersea cable to the existing high voltage substation.

Alinta has not yet identified where in the zone the wind farm would go but was investigating sites ahead of making an application to the federal government for a licence within months.

The zone has the capacity for more than one project, and Alinta is not the only company that has been looking at the waters off Warrnambool and Port Fairy.

DP Energy has also been eyeing off a one gigawatt windfarm off the Warrnambool coast.

The entire zone could produce 2.9GW of power which could mean up to 200 turbines are located offshore between Port Fairy and Warrnambool.

But it would be 2030-2032 before we would see any turbines offshore.