The federal government has announced a plan to develop an offshore wind farm zone off the New South Wales Hunter region that would have the capacity for hundreds of turbines.
A 5,000-square-kilometre area near Newcastle has been proposed as the location.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen was in Newcastle on Thursday to ask for community feedback.
"The zone has the capacity to create up to eight gigawatts of power — enough to power six million homes," he said.
"It has the capacity to create 4,800 construction jobs and 2,400 ongoing jobs."
The Hunter is one of six priority regions around Australia that the government has flagged as having offshore wind potential.
The Commonwealth recently declared Gippsland, in Victoria, as the first region in Australia to be home to a new offshore wind industry.
Mr Bowen said the project would help Australia transition to clean energy.
"It's important for our plans to get our national energy grid to 82 per cent renewable by 2030 and reduce our emissions by 43 per cent by 2030," he said.
With multiple coal-fired power stations in the Hunter, including Liddell, Eraring and Bayswater, scheduled to shut down in future years, Mr Bowen also highlighted the need for new sources of energy.
"This is important because it creates energy," he said.
"It is important for our energy security future."
Within the proposal the government noted several key reasons why the Hunter was an ideal location for an off-shore wind farm.
It said the region had "strong, consistent winds", was "close to areas of high electricity demand and existing connections to the grid" and was within the proposed Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone.
Mr Bowen said people could submit feedback on the proposal until late April.
He confirmed no construction could begin until he declared the area an official offshore wind zone.
Oceanex Energy chief operating officer Emily Scivetti said her company, in conjunction with international energy business Equinor, was already preparing plans for the project.
"This means we can start to apply for feasibility license applications and we can start to prepare for environmental baseline surveys," she said.
"We hope things can only accelerate from here."
