Offshore Renewable Energy Bill

The Bill has been delayed to allow time for amendments that create a power for Ministers to designate areas for offshore renewable energy and place time-limited restrictions on seabed mining. This will provide greater certainty for offshore renewable energy developers to invest in developments.

Energy Minister Simon Watt’s press release:

Clearing the path for offshore wind investment(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz

Government commitments

The Bill delivers on the Government’s commitment to introduce a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy, as outlined in ElectifyNZ.

Offshore renewable energy has the potential to support a clean energy economy and help New Zealand reach its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Our role

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is responsible for developing the legislation and will be the regulator and administrator of the offshore renewable energy regime.

Our functions will include:

• designing the implementation of the round (including forms for developers, assessment criteria and creating a submissions process)
• receiving and assessing permit applications, issuing round specific conditions, examining the duration of a permit and the area the permit covers
• giving advice to the Minister of Energy, as the decision maker of the applications
• maintaining a register of permits
• managing compliance with permits.

Development of the offshore renewable energy regime

Read the Offshore Renewable Energy Bill:

Offshore Renewable Energy Bill(external link) — New Zealand Legislation

The design of the regulatory regime is summarised in the Departmental Disclosure Statement for the Offshore Renewable Energy Bill.

Download the PDF version of the Departmental Disclosure Statement:

Public consultation on developing the regime

We held 2 rounds of public consultation in December 2022 and August 2023 to inform the development of the regime. Feedback generally supported the proposed settings.

We also carried out targeted consultation on the regulations that form part of the regime.

Read the consultation papers below:

Enabling Investment in offshore renewable energy

We consulted on proposed approaches to enabling feasibility studies for offshore renewable energy developments. We received 59 submissions from a wide range of stakeholders and iwi.

Developing a regulatory framework for offshore renewable energy

We sought feedback on proposed regulations to enable offshore renewable energy developments. This was the second discussion document for public consultation on proposals for offshore renewable energy regulation and we received over 50 submissions.

Cost recovery for the offshore renewable energy regulatory regime

Developers with a declared interest in New Zealand and with relevant iwi and hapū were invited to provide views on the proposed fees and levies to fund the regulator functions for the offshore renewable energy regime.

Cabinet decisions on the design of the regime