Ireland must 'catch up' on offshore wind energy, says Simon Coveney

Ireland's first operational offshore wind farm at the Arklow Bank Wind Park (Phase 1), off the coast of Arklow, Co Wicklow. Simon Coveney told a joint Oireachtas committee that the offshore wind energy sector can spark major economic growth.

Ireland has immense natural resources in the area of offshore wind but has been overtaken by countries such as Scotland and Portugal which have been quicker to adopt renewable energy technologies, Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney has said.

“Ireland needs to catch up and overtake them,” Mr Coveney told a joint Oireachtas committee on the environment and climate action as he said the sector can spark major economic growth.

Tackling the climate crisis and reducing emissions is only half the story of what offshore wind can be to Ireland, he said.

It can also spark an energy revolution over the next decade which can position Ireland as an attractive place for global business.

“This is a really exciting space that’s of course about reducing emissions and decarbonising the economy," he said.

But it’s also an economy in itself in terms of growth and expansion and job creation.

“The Irish economy of 2030 will very much be driven by the success that we have in this space in terms of offshore wind, in particular. That’s why it’s important we get to the 5GW, potentially 7GW, including hydrogen by 2030 [as committed to in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan], and that we ensure that fixed and floating [wind] is very much part of those plans."

This nascent energy and economic revolution will foster a more even spread of investment and growth across the country rather than clustering only around Dublin, he said.

Shannon Estuary

Places such as Shannon Estuary will be able to draw in up to 10GW of power from the Atlantic and so is likely to form a location for a significant industry cluster of high energy use businesses such as tech manufacturing and high-end data centres driven by clean power, he said.

“The demand for clean, green electricity in the future is going to be a determining factor of where global business is located.

“So in many ways, the race is on in terms of Ireland being one of the first movers in Europe to produce excess clean energy from sources like wind offshore.

“Today, there’s about 28GW of projects that are at some stage of planning or proposal in terms of offshore fixed and floating projects.

“That’s about €80bn of capital investment, entirely funded by the private sector.

“It is thousands of jobs around the Irish coastline — north-west, west, south-west , south, south-east. Ports like Cork, Foynes, potentially places like Rosslare, Killybegs, Galway, Arklow, being part of servicing and building this infrastructure offshore.”