Ireland has an excellent offshore wind resource that compares favourably with the best in the world both in terms of consistency and strength. This makes Ireland an ideal location for the development of both offshore wind farms and research and development facilities.
At present there are 5 companies actively involved in developing offshore wind energy projects in Ireland, these are SSE Renewables, Oriel Windfarm, Codling Wind Park, Saorgus and Fuinneamh Sceirde Teoranta.
The only offshore wind farm constructed to date is the first phase of the Arklow Bank project, the first phase of a 500MW project. Eco Wind have full consent for their project at Codling Bank. The other companies in NOW Ireland have projects at various stages in the permitting process. It is estimated that the total of capacity of these sites will feed up to 2000MW of energy into the national grid. This equates to a total investment in excess of €6bn over a number of years.
Ireland has the potential to become a centre of excellence in green energy deployment. This opens up a new economic opportunity for our nation, the chance to become world leaders in research development and demonstration in a technological field that will be central to world economic development in this century. Energy giant Shell has estimated the value of the renewable energy sector at $1trillion over the next five years. Ireland can become a leader in this industry in much the same way that we have developed technologies for Information Technology and Pharmaceuticals. A centre of excellence in offshore wind technology, perhaps based in one of the third level institutions, would support employment in areas such as...
- Turbine design
- Foundation Technology
- Energy Storage
- Installation
- Servicing
- Training
By involving our third level institutions in the development of this and other renewable sectors we can ensure that our economy remains to the forefront of what will be one of the world’s fastest growing industries in the 21st century. What IT and Pharmaceuticals have been to Irelands economic development in the past, renewable energy can be to our future.
