Time to develop offshore wind projects must be reduced

Renewable energy projects planned for Ireland are taking too long to develop and build, Cork Chamber told

Cork Chamber president Paula Cogan; Conor Healy, chief executive of Cork Chamber; environmental scientist Dr Tara Shine of Change by Degrees; Richard Martin of sponsors Ronan Daly Jermyn; and Karen O'Donoghue of media sponsors the Irish Examiner. Picture: Larry Cummins

The lead-in time it takes in Ireland to develop renewable energy projects such as offshore wind must be reduced if we are to improve our energy independence, business leaders in Cork have heard.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted Europe's dependency on Russian oil and gas and has led to a rush by countries to seek alternatives while global prices have increased significantly.

Environmental consultant and policy adviser Tara Shine told the Cork Chamber's Business Breakfast on Thursday that renewable energy projects planned for Ireland are taking too long to develop and build.

While a number of offshore wind projects are currently in the planning process around the Irish coast, it will be a number of years before they are operations.

DP Energy said a planned offshore wind project off the Wicklow coast will not be operational until 2030, while an onshore wind farm planned for Co Clare will be completed by 2026.

That's because it's taken us so long to get the legislation and regulation in place around the marine environment. And now there are all these other planning processes that we have to go through. 

"We are going to have to find a way to shorten those lead times so that we can create our own energy independence," Ms Shine said.

Speaking at the Imperial Hotel at what was the Chamber's first business breakfast event since the pandemic, Ms Shine said she accepted there were challenges facing the Government in creating the right environment for renewable energy projects. 

"I think the Government has challenges. I think we don't have enough people working on some of this. I think there isn't enough expertise in some Government departments to help actually make this happen as quickly as it needs to. 

And I think Government needs to continuously hear from the business community that you want this, that you want them to be progressive on this because you see that it favours your business, in the long run."

She added there were opportunities for progress on sustainability even during times of crisis but these have been squandered in the past.

"I did think at the start of the pandemic that we really would put these millions of economic stimulus money to work around a sustainable recovery. And, to be honest, we didn't, we did much the same as the financial crisis. We went just back to doing things the way we used to do it."

"There is so much demand from investors to spend in clean energy, renewable energy, for example, right now but we have to have those projects ready for them to put money into."