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Star of the South to be Australia's first offshore energy project
A formal partnership has been brokered to develop Australia’s first offshore wind farm located in the Bass Strait.
Melissa Coade
Firms: Clayton Utz (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners); White & Case (Offshore Energy Pty Ltd)
Value: $8 billion
Area: Energy and resources
Key players: The White & Case team advising Offshore was led by partners Andrew Clark, Adeline Pang and Tim Power. Associate Bryce Paterson assisted on the deal.
Clayton Utz team advising CIP was led by partners Peter Staciwa and Rory Moriarty. Partners Faith Talyor and Damien Gardiner also worked on the deal.
Watson Farley Williams acted as CIP's global counsel and Bruun & Hjejle acted as CIP's Danish counsel. Both firms worked with CIP on numerous offshore wind projects.
Deal significance: On completion, the Star of the South offshore wind farm, to be located between 10 kilometres and 25 kilometres off the south coast of Gippsland in Victoria in the Bass Strait, will generate 2GW of energy.
Not only will it be the first offshore renewable energy site in Australia, it will be the nation’s largest wind farm.
According to as statement by Clayton Utz, the wind farm will connect to existing grid infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley.
Clayton Utz lead partner Peter Staciwa said that an increasingly competitive renewables marketplace, the Star of the South was an example of financial sponsors partnering with developers at an early stage of renewable energy development project.
According to Clutz, the emerging trend ensured sponsors have greater investment certainty, but also that the project developers have access to the necessary resources to get the project off the ground.
White & Case partner Andrew Clark said, “The deal is a demonstration of White & Case’s market leading practice in renewable energy and places the Firm at the forefront of new technology development in Asia-Pacific.”
Detailed environmental and feasibility studies will need to be undertaken prior to construction for necessary regulatory approvals.
