Ireland’s west coast could generate more than enough wind energy to power the country, but it will take at least 10 years and probably longer to develop the required technology, EirGrid boss Mark Foley has said.
Ireland is aiming to produce 80 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 with 45 per cent coming from onshore wind farms, another 45 per cent from offshore wind farms while the growing solar sector would contribute 10 per cent.
Mr Foley said it took Ireland 20 years to get to the point where it was producing 40 per cent of its energy needs from renewables in 2020 but the challenge was to continue to grow the proportion coming from renewable sources over the next seven years.
“The Government ask is that we get the amount of energy coming from renewable sources to 80 per cent by 2040 – that’s an anchor pillar in the Government’s climate action plan and it’s going to be a meaty challenge to double the present rate from renewables and to do so while demand is growing.”
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Speaking in Cork at the opening of EirGrid’s first office outside Dublin, Mr Foley said the next phase of expansion would rely heavily on offshore wind around Ireland.
“The big heavy lifter for 2030 is offshore wind because offshore wind will completely transform the renewables capacity in the Irish system because offshore wind potentially produces an awful lot more energy than an onshore wind farm because it’s out at sea.
“Offshore wind is a critical component in our strategy to deliver on the climate action plan and EirGrid is launching a major consultation programme in respect of how we are going to design and build the next phase of our offshore sector off the south coast, off Cork and Waterford.”
Mr Foley said the plan was that by 2030, Phase L of offshore wind generation off the east coast would contribute 5 megawatts of electricity to the Irish grid while Phase II off the south coast would contribute just under 1 gigawatt – 900 megawatts – to the Irish grid.
“Take a 2030 window. We have a target of 5 gigawatts from the east coast, why? Because the east coast is the easiest place to start because the seabed is not deep, the sandbar is out there so you can deploy very proven technology so there is no technology risk here.
“It’s been done all around the world and you can anchor the wind turbine into the seabed and all the way from Dundalk down to Wexford, you have a perfect bed for putting in large turbines, so we are targeting 5 gigawatts from that sector.
“Now, Phase II is off the south coast and we are again targeting a 2030 timeline though it may run slightly over that and we are aiming to produce 900 megawatts – waters here are getting deeper and the technology, including in relation to floating wind turbines, is evolving all the time.
“That technology is not commercial yet, but we do see a situation coming towards the end of the decade where wind farms will be floating on platforms and the advantage of that is that they are further out at sea, and they can capture even better wind.”
Mr Foley said a lot of the innovation in relation to the development of floating wind farms came from the experience of the oil and gas sector where they were used to locate platforms in deep waters but the plan for 2030 was for wind farms to be based on proven technologies.
