Dutch geo-data specialist company Fugro has been awarded a contract to perform a geotechnical site investigation, which is set to kick in this weekend, for Australia’s first offshore wind farm, Star of the South.

The geotechnical site investigation is partly funded by the Victorian Government through the Energy Innovation Fund with a USD 19.5 million investment.

A specialist vessel and crew will spend five weeks at sea collecting soil and rock samples from up to 70 metres beneath the seafloor, with the findings to help design the proposed offshore wind farm to suit local seabed conditions.

Star of the South is currently in the feasibility phase and has the potential to generate up to 2.2 GW of new capacity to supply around 20 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs and power around 1.2 million homes across the state.

In March of last year, the Victorian Government announced a plan to build at least 2 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2032, 4 GW by 2035, and 9 GW by 2040.

Star of the South, the first and most progressed offshore wind project in Victoria, is being developed to deliver clean energy to the grid by 2028.

Pending approvals, the project is planning to start construction around the middle of the decade and is expected to comprise up to 200 wind turbines.

In August 2022, two measurement devices, called floating LiDARs, were retrieved and inspected after two and a half years of collecting data at the proposed project site in Australia, with the ground investigations being completed as well along the project’s proposed transmission route.

Along with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Cbus, the project is also owned by Australian Founders – Terry Kallis, Andy Evans, and Peter Sgardelis.