The Australian offshore wind market has moved from aspiration to pipeline in the space of three years. With six offshore wind zones declared, feasibility licences issued for projects totalling over 24 GW, and a Federal target of 2 GW by 2032, the engineering supply chain question is no longer whether this market will develop, it is whether Australian and APAC-based engineering firms are positioned to support it when construction begins.
For a firm like Grispen Australia, with direct floating wind project experience from Europe, the answer is yes. But the transition from European floating wind to the Australian context is not straightforward. The seabed conditions are different. The regulatory framework is new and still evolving. The supply chain is thin. And the weather windows and metocean environments in Bass Strait, the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean present distinct engineering challenges that European experience only partially prepares you for.
This article sets out what we see as the key engineering challenges and opportunities for floating wind in Australia, drawing on our experience from the EOLMED floating wind project in the Mediterranean, the Makar Wind floating substation structure, and a boat landing frame for SAIPEM's Parc éolien en mer du Calvados.
Where Australia Stands: Six Zones, 75 GW of Potential
The Australian Government has declared six offshore wind zones since 2022, covering coastlines from Victoria to Western Australia. Together they represent a potential generating capacity that would more than double Australia's current total installed generation.
The most advanced project remains Star of the South, up to 2.2 GW off the Gippsland coast, developed by Southerly Ten (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Cbus Super). Its Environmental Impact Statement and Environment Effects Statement were released for public review in May 2026, with construction targeted before 2030 to meet Victoria's 2 GW by 2032 target. The project's capital expenditure is estimated at over AUD 11 billion.
In Western Australia, directly relevant to Grispen Australia's base in Perth, feasibility licences have been issued for three offshore wind projects in the Bunbury zone, covering a total potential of 4 GW of renewable energy. The Bunbury zone was declared in August 2024 and covers 4,000 square kilometres with potential to support 11.4 GW of electricity, enough to power all homes and manufacturing industries in Western Australia's southwest region.
"If all six zones are eventually developed to their assessed potential, Australia's offshore wind sector could add as much as 75.4 GW, more than doubling the country's current installed generation."
Societe Generale APAC Energy Analysis, 2025The engineering pipeline that flows from these projects, metocean studies, structural design, installation engineering, fabrication packages, commissioning, represents a multi-decade workload. The question for engineering firms in Perth and across APAC is how quickly they can build the floating structure expertise to participate in it.
European Experience: What Transfers and What Does Not
Australia's offshore wind programme will draw heavily on European technology, contractors and engineering methodologies. The floating platform concepts that have been proven in the North Sea and Mediterranean, spar buoys, semi-submersibles, tension leg platforms, will be the reference designs for Australian deep-water sites. The structural standards are largely the same: DNV-ST-0437 for wind turbine loads, DNV-OS-C101 for floating steel structures, DNV-ST-N001 for marine operations and installation.
For engineers with European floating wind experience, this is a strong foundation. But the Australian context diverges from Europe in several important respects.
| Parameter | European Context (North Sea / Med) | Australian Context (Bass Strait / WA) |
|---|---|---|
| Water depth | 30–300m (mixed fixed and floating) | 60–200m+ (floating preferred for deep sites) |
| Metocean severity | Harsh North Sea conditions, well characterised | Southern Ocean swell, limited long-term data at many sites |
| Seabed conditions | Predominantly sandy, well mapped | Variable: carbonate sands, calcarenite, limited geotechnical data |
| Supply chain | Mature: multiple vessel operators, fabricators, cable suppliers | Nascent: limited local fabrication, no dedicated installation vessels |
| Regulatory framework | Established (Crown Estate, national maritime regimes) | New legislation (OEI Act 2021), NOPSEMA as regulator, still evolving |
| Workforce | Large pool of offshore wind specialists | Skills gap: oil & gas workforce available but retraining needed |
| Port infrastructure | Dedicated O&W ports (Rotterdam, Esbjerg) | Ports being assessed, Portland, Newcastle, Bunbury under review |
| Installation weather windows | Seasonal but predictable from extensive data | Bass Strait notoriously rough; WA cyclone season adds complexity |
The Key Engineering Challenges for Floating Wind in Australia
Many Australian offshore wind sites lack the decade-long metocean records that underpin European structural design. Design basis development requires careful extrapolation and conservative assumptions until longer-term buoy and satellite data matures. This increases structural margins and installation risk.
Australian continental shelf sediments are frequently carbonate-based, very different from the silica sands of the North Sea. Carbonate soils behave differently under cyclic loading, affecting mooring anchor design and suction pile capacity. European geotechnical approaches need significant recalibration for Australian conditions.
Australia currently has no heavy lift or jack-up vessels in-country suited for offshore wind installation. All major installation vessels will need to mobilise from Europe or Asia, significantly increasing day rates and transit costs. Marine operations engineering must account for limited vessel availability and long standby scenarios.
The Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 created the regulatory framework from scratch. NOPSEMA was designated as the safety regulator. Many approval processes, engineering acceptance criteria and inspection regimes are still being established. Experienced engineers must engage early with regulators rather than relying on pre-existing precedent.
Western Australian offshore wind sites, including the Bunbury zone, must account for cyclone design load cases that are absent from European experience. DNV-ST-0437 provides the framework, but the return period events and directional loading are significantly more severe than North Sea design bases.
Bass Strait combines the Roaring Forties swell with fetch from three ocean directions, creating short-period, steep sea states that challenge floating platform motion response. Dynamic amplification in mooring and power cable design requires careful coupled analysis that differs significantly from Mediterranean or sheltered North Sea sites.
The Opportunities for APAC-Based Engineering Firms
Western Australia's offshore oil & gas engineering workforce has directly applicable skills: structural analysis, marine operations, installation engineering, subsea cable handling, mooring design. The transition from oil & gas to floating wind is technically closer than it appears, especially for engineers who have worked on FPSOs and floating production systems.
European contractors will dominate early project phases, but there is a strong policy push for Australian local content. Engineering firms that can demonstrate floating structure credentials now, before the first contracts are awarded, will be positioned as preferred local partners rather than late entrants.
Deep-water Australian sites will require floating substations to collect and transmit power, complex structural engineering that draws directly on oil & gas floating production platform experience. This is exactly the type of scope where Grispen's EOLMED and Makar Wind experience is applicable.
With no established Australian installation fleet, every vessel mobilised from overseas will require detailed marine operations engineering, lift studies, mooring analyses, seafastening for transport, installation procedures. This work can and should be done by APAC-based firms with DNV-ST-N001 credentials.
Developers entering a new regulatory environment need independent technical advisory, code compliance review, peer check of structural designs, risk assessment for marine operations. This consulting role is available to experienced engineering firms without requiring full-scale project execution capacity.
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam all have active floating wind programmes. An engineering firm that builds floating wind credentials in Australia is simultaneously positioning itself across the entire APAC market, a region with deeper waters than Europe and even greater floating wind potential.
What Grispen Brings From European Floating Wind Projects
Grispen Australia's parent company, Grispen Technologies, has direct project experience on two European floating wind scopes and related offshore wind structures. This is not theoretical familiarity, these are completed engineering deliverables accepted by certifying authorities.
DNV-ST-0437 (wind turbine loads) · DNV-OS-C101 (floating steel structures) · DNV-ST-N001 (marine operations and installation) · DNV-RP-C205 (environmental loads) · DNV-OS-C301 (structural design, ship-shaped units) · DNV-RP-B101 (corrosion protection) · NORSOK M-501 (surface preparation and protective coating) · DNV-RU-HSLC (high-speed and light craft) · AISC 360-16 · API RP 2A · ISO 12944-5
Applying European Floating Wind Experience to the Australian Context
The structural engineering methodology for floating wind platforms translates directly from Europe to Australia. The load cases, operational, survival, transit, installation, are governed by the same DNV standards. FEA tools (ANSYS Mechanical, Staad Pro) and coupled analysis approaches are platform-agnostic. The codes that govern corrosion protection, lifting design and mooring are international.
What changes is the input data, and this is where Australian project teams need to invest early:
- Site-specific metocean studies must be conducted with sufficient duration to establish statistically reliable extreme value predictions. Do not assume North Sea scatter diagrams apply to Bass Strait or the Indian Ocean.
- Geotechnical investigation programmes must be designed specifically for carbonate soil conditions. European anchor design approaches (suction piles, drag anchors) require revalidation for Australian seabed types.
- Vessel availability studies must inform marine operations planning from the earliest FEED stage. Installation sequencing, weather window requirements and contingency planning all depend on which installation assets can realistically be mobilised.
- Cyclone design load cases must be incorporated into the structural design basis for all WA projects. DNV-ST-0437 Annex provides guidance but requires project-specific adaptation.
- NOPSEMA engagement should begin during FEED, not at detailed design. The regulator is actively developing its floating wind acceptance criteria and welcomes early industry input.
Grispen Australia brings direct floating wind structural engineering experience, from the EOLMED floating farm in the Mediterranean to the Makar Wind floating substation, to the emerging Australian offshore wind market. We are Perth-based, APAC-focused, and positioned to support developers, EPCs and installers entering the Australian floating wind supply chain.
Our capabilities cover structural design and FEA (ANSYS, Staad Pro), marine operations engineering under DNV-ST-N001, installation engineering for floating structures, and project management for packages up to USD 10M. We can act as your local engineering partner, embedded in your team from FEED through to offshore installation.
Conclusion
Australia's offshore wind market is not a distant prospect, it is a pipeline with active feasibility licences, a declared Federal target, and multi-billion dollar projects in environmental assessment right now. The engineering supply chain that will support construction over the next decade is being built today.
For firms with European floating wind experience, the Australian market is genuinely accessible. The structural methodologies transfer. The standards are the same. The oil and gas workforce in Western Australia provides a strong base for skills transition. What is required is the willingness to engage early, adapt to the Australian site conditions, and build relationships with the developers and EPCs who will award the first engineering packages.
Grispen Australia is doing exactly that. If you are working on Australian floating wind development and need a structural engineering or project management partner with floating structure credentials, we are ready to talk.
