Call for Shannon Estuary to be hub for ocean energy

THE country’s second largest port authority is seeking the designation of the Shannon Estuary as an official European hub for manufacturing, assembling and servicing of ocean energy equipment.

The call was made yesterday by Kay McGuinness, chairperson of Shannon Foynes Port Company.

She was speaking at a Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland conference titled Developing Europe’s Ocean Energy Hub — Securing Ireland’s energy future?

Ms McGuinness called on the Government and the EU to designate the estuary as the preferred location for a future, large-scale ocean energy hub.

A recent report estimated the sector could be worth €9 billion to the economy and said it could create thousands of jobs.

According to Ms McGuinness , the Shannon Estuary is uniquely positioned to be the engine room of this rapid growth sector for Irish industry.

“It is a given that the west coast of Ireland possesses some of the world’s best wind, wave and tidal resources. It is already where the vast majority of wind installations are situated, with much more in the offing, while the Shannon Estuary also houses an existing energy cluster.

“Together these underline the great potential for harnessing ocean energy resources for export to a wider European Energy grid,” she said.

Other European countries and ports are already active in seeking to benefit from the exploitation of ocean energy.

“They are investing in berths, storage, production space and turbine manufacturing plants, both planned and, in some cases, already under way,” she added.

Shannon Foynes Port Company recently announced a €20m investment for the creation of the west of Ireland’s only specialised quayside handling and storage area to facilitate investment in renewable energy resources.

Ms McGuinness warned major legislative reform for foreshore and other licensing must be implemented if the estuary’s enormous potential is to be unlocked.

“As experience here with the granting of foreshore licences for the Shannon LNG project recently has shown, it can take two to three years for that process to be completed. Such a timeframe is totally unacceptable and could drive investment elsewhere,” she warned.

More than 100 delegates attended yesterday’s conference which was supported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Shannon Development, the Marine Institute and RPS Group.