ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode of PowerPod, host Dan Wiseman is joined by Aruneesh Lakshmanavelu to explore the rapidly developing offshore wind markets in Australia and France.
They discuss Australia’s first major offshore wind auction, now relaunched for August 2026 after last year’s postponement. Aruneesh covers the key challenges that caused the delay, improvements to the offtake mechanism through the Electricity Services Entry Mechanism (ESCM), port infrastructure bottlenecks at Hastings, and strong interest from major developers in the Gippsland region.
The conversation then shifts to France, where the newly released PPE3 adjusts offshore wind targets to 15 GW by 2035 (with 18 GW now by 2037). They examine the merging of Auctions 9 and 10 into a large ~10 GW tender (split between fixed and floating), grid flexibility measures, the EolMed project, and new European supply chain localisation requirements.
