Australia opens first offshore wind auction as CIS Tender 9 targets 5 GW
Delivery risks shadow Australia's maiden offshore wind round after large onshore projects repeatedly missed commissioning targets.
Australia's federal government has opened CIS Tender 9, its first auction round that includes offshore wind, seeking 5 GW of renewable generation capacity across the National Electricity Market. AusEnergy Services Limited, delivering the tender on behalf of Canberra, confirmed allocations include a 300 MW target for Tasmania and 1.6 GW for Victoria, where a 470 MW capacity limit applies.3
Victoria's allocation is the vehicle for Australia's maiden offshore wind developments, with the state targeting its first 2 GW of such projects. The remaining 3.1 GW from Tender 9 is unallocated but could be awarded to Queensland or South Australia. New South Wales is excluded; developers there can bid under the re-started NSW Roadmap generation tender instead.3
Tender 9 arrives on the back of a strong result for the scheme's previous round. Tender 7, which opened in October 2025, delivered 19 projects totalling 7.8 GW, exceeding its original 5 GW target by more than 50%. Developer appetite looks credible on paper. The buildout record tells a more complicated story.1
Golden Plains wind farm in Victoria became the first Australian project to pass the 1 GW output mark in the week of 2026-06-08, as Renew Economy editor Sophie Vorrath reported on Friday (2026-06-12). But Golden Plains only claimed that milestone because the project originally expected to hold it ran into serious trouble.5
Acciona broke ground on the MacIntyre wind precinct in Queensland in May 2022, originally billing it as a 1.026 GW development. By 2023, it had been cut to 923 MW after partner CleanCo withdrew its commitment to the 103 MW Karara component, citing high costs and delays. Then blade failures on the 5.7 MW Nordex turbines left output capped at around 450 MW, roughly half the remaining capacity, with repairs not expected to finish until the end of 2026.5
Acciona still plans to eventually double MacIntyre to 2 GW — internally dubbed the "Big Mac" — but the project's current state shows plainly how far Australian wind construction has lagged behind contract awards.5
Tender 9 adds a structuring requirement that will test developers already weighing offshore wind's capital costs against onshore alternatives. A dedicated 500 MW allocation is reserved for projects committing to First Nations equity and/or revenue sharing, with proponents required to demonstrate arrangements equivalent to at least 5% equity participation or revenue to qualify.3
Political risk in Victoria complicates the outlook further. Shadow energy minister David Davis reiterated at a wind energy conference on Tuesday (2026-05-26) that the Liberal Party intends to press a "pause" on transmission projects in the state. Wind industry figures warned the move would push capital to other states. Offshore wind in Victoria cannot connect to the NEM without new transmission infrastructure, so any freeze on network investment hits offshore developers harder than onshore ones.2
Broader generation data shows developers have options. Utility-scale solar PV and wind in Australia generated a combined 4.6 TWh in May 2026, up 10% from 4.2 TWh in May 2025, according to Rystad Energy senior analyst David Dixon. The growth is spread across multiple states, and developers choosing where to commit capital have no shortage of competing jurisdictions.4
The first real test for Tender 9 will come when ASL publishes its bidder shortlists and reveals whether offshore-specific names clear the eligibility threshold, or whether Victoria's 470 MW offshore allocation gets absorbed by onshore projects competing for the same underwriting. Given MacIntyre's trajectory, the gap between auction ambition and commissioned megawatts is the number the market should keep tracking.3