Oceanex Energy briefed HunterNet on Wednesday about its plans for the $10billion Novocastrian Wind Farm, which would include about 130 turbines located 30 kilometres off the coast.

The company is one of seven parties that have expressed an interest in developing offshore wind projects in the region as part of the State Government's Hunter Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone.

Oceanex hopes to have the necessary planning approvals and funding in place for the Novocastrian project so it can begin the four year construction phase in 2028.

It is also working on a similar project in the Illawarra.

Chief executive Andy Evans estimates the Novocastrian project would create about 3000 engineering and manufacturing jobs during the construction phase.

"There will be more than a million tonnes of steel needed in the foundation structures and about 10,000 welding hours per floating foundation structure," Mr Evans said.

"There will have to be international supply chain involvement because a lot of the technology has been developed overseas but our aim is to optimise the supply chain so we can get as much of it done locally as possible."

Oceanex cofounded the Star of the South offshore wind farm project, which commenced in South Gippsland in Victoria in 2012.

The company is looking to progress the development of up to four other similar projects in Australia, including the Novocastrian project.

While other locations, such as Eden on the NSW south coast had a superior wind resource, the Hunter's port and industrial skill set made it a more attractive location overall.

"There are better wind resources in Eden, but the challenge is that it doesn't have the local industry and capability to carry things off," Mr Evans said.

"Certainly in the last 25 years following the closure of BHP and the Hunter's ability to transition into other areas shows why it is a really good place for us. One of the other things we look at is the ability to access the available grid transmission."

A 2021 Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre report said Australia was yet to capitalise on significant offshore wind capacity despite the International Energy Agency nominating it as one of the "big three" likely sources of renewable energy globally.

It said sites that had traditionally been electricity generation hubs, such as the Hunter and Latrobe valleys were particularly suitable as they were close to transmission grids and had strong offshore winds at times when solar and onshore wind output was limited.

Oceanex is due to release its supply chain and investment report for the Novocastrian project in two weeks.

The Australian Energy Market Operator has already suggested the Hunter offshore wind zone has the lowest cost to expand of any renewable energy zone in the national electricity market.

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