The three-month community consultation process on the Hunter Offshore Wind Zone wrapped up last week.
The Federal Government’s Energy, Climate Change and Environment Department received just over 1900 submissions – 93.6 per cent of them being from individuals not organisations.
Central Coast residents were the most vocal on the project with 38 per cent of the submissions from there, 17.6 per cent from Lake Macquarie and just over 15 per cent from Newcastle.
The project involves hundreds of wind turbines being placed 10 to 50 kilometres off the coast on 2810 square kilometres between Norah Head and Port Stephens. It would be one of six off-shore wind projects around the country planned to operate by 2028.
The majority of the submissions were commenting on the impact on the environment and visual concerns.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will now consider all of the submissions before deciding whether or not to approve or modify the proposal.
The three biggest unions in the state want to see the wind zone expanded by at least 30 per cent south to Terrigal.