Myth: Offshore wind turbines are threatened by sea swells

Wind turbines off Australia’s shores won’t stand up to the massive swells and winds generated by east coast lows and by tropical cyclones.

Fact:

The waters off Australia’s southern coast are indeed susceptible to strong winds, as are those in the far north, but those areas are not where wind farms are to be located. Instead, the farms will be set in the waters off the Hunter and the Illawarra in NSW, and off Gippsland in Victoria, where the winds are perfectly manageable. 

Of course, offshore wind turbines do occasionally get damaged by extreme weather events, but the real damage from such weather is to onshore transmission lines, not platforms out at sea.