David Connolly: Wind is in the sails of energy industry

Ambitious goals will attract billions in investment, create thousands of jobs, and regenerate coastal communities, writes David Connolly.

Ireland was a surprise hit at a recent European conference on offshore wind energy in Copenhagen despite not having built an offshore windfarm for more than 14 years. More than 9,000 delegates from across Europe’s renewable energy sector joined hundreds of national and EU policymakers to map out the role offshore wind energy can play in tackling climate change.

And many of them dropped by the Irish stand, excited by the momentum building behind efforts to develop some of the best offshore wind energy resources in the world. For a generation, while other countries have forged ahead, using offshore wind energy as a core part of their transition to low-carbon economies, Ireland has fallen behind.

In June 2019 the Government published an ambitious climate action plan that, for the first time, set out a real vision for how we will decarbonise Ireland’s energy system.

Offshore wind energy is at the heart of a plan that will cut CO2 emissions in the electricity sector by two-thirds and double the share of electricity provided by renewables to 70% by 2030.

Already we have an offshore wind energy pipeline of more than 12 GW at various stages of development off Ireland’s south and east coasts.

Working together — coastal communities, industry, government, system operators, and regulators — we will build an Irish offshore wind industry that will attract billions of euro in investment in clean energy, create thousands of skilled jobs, and regenerate our coastal communities.

This will be just the start of Ireland’s offshore wind energy revolution. The current industry focus on the south and east coasts is because offshore wind turbines need a depth of approximately 50m or less to be firmly anchored in the seabed. To take advantage of the enormous amounts of potential wind energy available in the deeper waters off the west and north coasts, a different kind of technology is needed.

Floating wind turbines use cables to tether them to the seabed. This allows us to build offshore windfarms much further out into the ocean. While this is currently an expensive technology option the price is falling rapidly and, as it does, we will see it deployed off Ireland’s coasts.

And this cannot happen fast enough as the need to develop our wind energy resources grows more urgent every day.

In October 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told us we had 12 years to keep global heating to a maximum of 1.5C. Beyond that, the lives of hundreds of millions of people will be vulnerable to drought, floods and extreme heat. Many will be forced to leave their homes as refugees.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with ministers Eoghan Murphy, Richard Bruton, Simon Harris and Josepha Madigan at the launch earlier this year of the first progress report on the Climate Action Plan 2019. Picture: Colin Keegan

A little over a year later and despite national parliaments, including Dáil Éireann, declaring a national emergency it is still difficult to detect the necessary sense of urgency, the determination right across every single aspect of Irish society to do whatever it takes to at least halve our CO2 emissions by 2030.

Proof of this came in the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent 2018 greenhouse gas emissions report which showed that last year our CO2 emissions dropped by only 0.2%.

Importantly, emissions would have risen were it not for the contribution made by onshore wind energy, which increased the amount of electricity it generated last year by 14%.

Wind is expected to do even better in 2019 and is on track to provide almost a third of Ireland’s electricity this year, cutting millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions, increasing our energy security, and driving down the wholesale price of electricity.

To build on this success, Ireland will need a policy framework that ensures wind — onshore and offshore — solar, and other renewable energy sources can be developed and constructed as quickly as possible.

Earlier this month, Minister for Communications, Climate Action, and Environment Richard Bruton put in place a substantial part of that framework. The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) is the foundation on which another generation of onshore wind energy will be built. It will also facilitate a more diverse renewable energy mix, supporting the development of solar and offshore wind.

Central to the scheme is the need to support and empower communities to be a part of the energy transition.

Renewable energy generators successful in the first RESS auctions next year will be required to pay €2 for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity produced into a community benefit fund that will, for the first auction alone, amount to an annual payment of about €6m to rural communities living near windfarms and solar farms.

Communities will also be able to invest in new local windfarms and a portion of the auction pot will be set aside for community-led projects to encourage individuals and communities to play their part in driving Ireland’s energy transition.

More generally, all electricity consumers will benefit from the scheme which will be based on auctions, ensuring that only those wind and solar farms that offer the best value for money will be allowed to participate.

There will also be a clawback mechanism for the consumer. If a windfarm achieves a better price on the wholesale market than the price they are guaranteed under the support scheme they will have to pay the difference back to the electricity consumer. In other words, we are moving to a situation where renewable electricity in Ireland will be paying money to the consumer.

Research from energy market specialists Pöyry, due to be published soon, estimates that, if windfarms can deliver a price of €60 per MWh, the combination of the clawback mechanism and the savings wind energy always delivers on the wholesale market would amount to a net benefit to the electricity consumer of more than €2.5bn over the lifetime of the RESS.

While the RESS is an essential part of the policy framework needed to hit our 2030 targets, it is only part of the picture. The planning process for renewable energy in Ireland is cumbersome, contradictory and confused. We need one that is fair and transparent. Everyone affected by a project has the right to be heard and, if they feel their concerns have not been taken on board, to object. This right must be protected.

But we also need a planning system that deals with applications more quickly and that fast-tracks critical infrastructure like renewable energy projects and grid reinforcements.

Vexatious objections must be tackled and the judicial review process streamlined. This is not about giving anyone a free pass. Our members must continually improve how we engage with communities and ensure our planning applications are clear and well thought out. No developer can be allowed to ignore legitimate local concerns and we can, must, strive to do better.

But nor, at the same time, can development of renewable energy be delayed or prevented by those opposed to action on climate change or by what Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy rightly calls Ireland’s “objection culture”.

One of the key challenges for windfarm developers are the timelines for planning decisions. An analysis of windfarm appeals decided by An Bord Pleanála between 2017 and mid-2019 found that, on average, appeals were under consideration for 66 weeks. This is far in excess of An Bord Pleanála’s 18-week target and three times the average period for all appeals decided in 2018.

Instead of 18 weeks being a simple target, it should be a statutory decision period and An Bord Pleanála must be given the resources to ensure it can deliver — just as it has met statutory decision periods for strategic housing developments.

The new wind energy guidelines — due to be published before the end of the year — must strike the proper balance between Ireland’s need to develop renewable electricity and the concerns some individuals and communities may have around windfarm development.

The new guidelines must be based on evidence. They must rest on a robust scientific analysis. They must draw on proven expertise — national and international — in noise assessments.

Only by doing this can Murphy develop a set of guidelines that will ensure the continued development of a thriving wind energy industry, progress in cutting our CO2 emissions, and help to drive down the price of electricity.

The next two years will be the most decisive in shaping Ireland’s chances of hitting our 2030 climate change targets.

We will need to ensure the RESS is delivered as quickly as possible, put in place a planning and grid connection system for offshore wind, and ensure that onshore wind and solar can be delivered in time to cut CO2 emissions in the energy sector by two thirds by 2030.

It’s a huge challenge and the stakes have never been higher. But wind, and the broader renewable energy sector, is ready to play its part, to work with communities and policymakers to ensure that Ireland’s fight back against climate change is a fight we win.

David Connolly is chief executive of the Irish Wind Energy Association