Government takes €35m security guarantee as plans withdrawn for €1.4bn wind farm
An offshore windfarm. Plans for a €1.4bn wind farm off the coast of Co Clare and Co Galway have been withdrawn.
An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) has confirmed that plans have formally been withdrawn for a €1.4bn offshore wind farm comprising 30 Eiffel Tower-sized turbines off the coast of Co Clare and Co Galway.
TV chat-show host and stand-up comedian Tommy Tiernan was one of 177 third parties who lodged submissions with ACP on the contentious plan to construct the 450MW wind farm, featuring 30 turbines more than 1,000ft high in the Atlantic Ocean.
Fuinneamh Sceirde Teoranta (FST) planned to construct the Sceirde Rocks wind farm in waters located between 5km and 11.5km off the west coast, with Carna in Co Galway the nearest settlement.
ACP has now informed Mr Tiernan, other third parties, and local authorities that FST has withdrawn its planning application.
With the abandonment of the project, FST has forfeited the €35.4m performance security bond it lodged with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment in connection with the proposal.
This adds to the substantial costs the company incurred in preparing the planning documentation, lodged with the Marine Area Planning section of ACP on January 17.
In a letter to ACP, FST director Sharn Ward stated that representatives of FST and ACP met on December 4, when “FST noted its intention to withdraw the planning application”.
Ms Ward said: “With this letter, FST formally withdraws the planning application.” Ms Ward said that “by way of background, FST notified the Dept of Climate, Energy and the Environment by letters dated April 25 and May 29 of the cessation of the Sceirde Rocks project".
A spokesman for the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment said on Friday that the Sceirde Rocks project was a 450MW offshore wind development and one of four successful bidders in the Department’s first offshore wind auction in 2023.
He said the project is owned by Corio Generation, which announced a planned corporate restructuring on April 8, 2025, that would see it focus on a smaller portfolio of projects worldwide.
He said that by letter dated April 25, Corio formally notified the Department that the Sceirde Rocks project would not proceed.
“This notification terminated the Department’s ORESS support contract for the project.”
He said the Department has drawn down the performance security of approximately €35.4m.
He said the purpose of the performance security, under the terms and conditions of the ORESS 1 auction, was to ensure delivery of the project.
Following abandonment of the Sceirde Rocks project, its performance security was forfeited. There is no provision in the terms and conditions for its return.”
He said the Government remains committed to delivering 5GW of offshore wind capacity, with projects in construction by 2030 and energised as soon as feasible thereafter.
The first of these South Coast DMAP projects, the 900MW Tonn Nua site, which is twice the size of Sceirde Rocks, was the subject of a successful auction concluded last month, with a joint venture between ESB and Ørsted confirmed as the winner.
He said the Department is making arrangements to advance the remaining three South Coast DMAP sites, ensuring a consistent pipeline of offshore wind developments over the coming years.
In his objection to the Sceirde Rocks proposal, Mr Tiernan cited the “desecration of that area of natural beauty”.
“Culture is judged on how it protects areas and ideals such as this. Allowing such a project to go ahead when there are many more suitable sites either much further off-shore or inland would be a totally irresponsible and disgusting thing to do.”
Accounts filed by Fuinneamh Sceirde Teoranta show the company had already invested €31.7m in project costs across 2023 and 2024.
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