Keppel Prince eyes role with wind farm zone project that could include up to 1000 turbines at sea

The project could also secure the future of Portland's aluminium smelter, it was revealed on Wednesday.

Keppel Prince director Steve Garner said he was excited at the prospect of putting in a tender for the project, which would require turbine blades of up to 125 metres in length.

However, he said it was "early days" and there would be a lot that would need to be done for the company that is successful in winning the project.

"We're very excited at the prospect of this happening in Portland and the region," Mr Garner said.

"But we're talking about a much bigger scale.

"The turbines would be three times the size of what we have onshore."

Mr Garner said it would require investment from Keppel Prince.

"We would need to make some big changes to be able to manufacture blades this size," he said.

"Any manufacturing would need to be done at a port and it's undetermined which port that would be at this stage."

Federal Minister for Energy and Climate Change Chris Bowen officially launched the consultation process on Wednesday during a visit to Portland for the zone which he said could generate up to 14 gigawatts of renewable power and potentially power 8.4 million homes.

Mr Bowen would not be drawn on how many turbines could be erected off the south-west coast, but The Standard has calculated to achieve the 14 gigawatts, up to 1000 turbines would be needed, based on current technology.

"It enables one of the country's biggest aluminium smelters to potentially decarbonize," he said.

Mr Bowen said this would help secure Alcoa's future in Portland.

Glenelg Shire mayor Scott Martin said he welcomed the announcement.

"I welcome any announcement by the federal and state governments that will help drive our economy towards a zero carbon footprint," Cr Martin said.

"It is part of local government to consider future generations and this certainly does that in the renewable energy space.

"As for the Glenelg Shire, the future is very bright indeed with the possibility of 1000s of jobs that will be created, not only in the Glenelg Shire, but the south-west of Victoria."

Cr Martin said he looked forward to working with the state and federal governments.

"For now it's about that community consultation that the federal government is doing and I encourage people to get to the drop in sessions to talk about their concerns and find out the correct information rather than any misinformation that might be out in the public," he said.

Federal member for Wannon Dan Tehan said the scale of the offshore windfarms was "something to behold".

He said it would need the whole community coming together to make sure everyone benefits from it.

"Alcoa, we want to make sure it continues and continues to provide jobs and offshore wind can provide that renewable."

Mr Tehan said Portland-based wind turbine manufacturing business Keppel Prince want to be a part of offshore wind as well.

"The scale is something the like of which we haven't seen before," he said.

"We want to make sure that our community gets the maximum benefit from this."

Mr Bowen said "there was a fair way to go" before the first turbines would go in offshore, with the consultation only just starting.

"I would envisage we would have first power by 2030, ideally it would be ahead of that," he said.

"It's obviously not going to be next year or the year after."

But he said he would be working with the state government to get it done as fast as possible.

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