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Agriland
28-05-2025
- Business
- Agriland
‘We need to move faster' on emissions targets
The Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy, Darragh O'Brien has said that the latest projections from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published today (Wednesday, May 28) are a clear signal that, while there has been progress, we need to move faster to meet 2030 climate targets. Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector 'will range from a 1% increase to a 16% decrease over the period of 2018 to 2030', according to the EPA. Minister O'Brien commented: 'The government is fully aware of the scale of the climate challenge and the importance for Ireland to be a leader in accelerating climate action. '… We are undergoing a renewables-led energy transformation. Coal is on the way out, and renewables are now the backbone of our power mix; electricity generation from renewables has increased fivefold since 2005. 'It is estimated that renewables provided 40% of our electricity demand in 2024. 'We are continuing to support the delivery of renewable energy in Ireland through the transposition of the Renewable Energy Directive II and III, providing important permitting and legal reforms, and further RESS and ORESS auctions to support additional onshore and offshore renewable energy,' the minister added. He explained that Ireland is also delivering new interconnectors; the Greenlink interconnector to the UK is now operational, doubling Ireland's interconnector capacity. Construction of the Celtic interconnector to France is on track to be completed by 2026/2027 and the North-South project is advancing. Minister O'Brien said that these projects boost energy security and allow greater import/export of clean power. 'This is backed by concrete action; emissions fell by 6.8% in 2023. GDP has seen a six-fold increase and the population has increased by nearly 50% since 1990,' he added. 'Yet, emissions are lower today than they were then. That's real decoupling of emissions from economic activity – and few countries in Europe have achieved it under similar pressure. 'We're also seeing progress in other areas. Electric vehicle sales are up – by 23% in April alone – and not just in cities. 'Rural counties like Carlow are showing real momentum with a 42% increase in EV sales for the first four months of the year compared to last year,' he added. The minister also referenced the uptake of solar, the Renewable Heat Obligation and schools education and awareness as other drivers of the positive climate trend in Ireland. He continued: 'We know that the EPA projections are not absolute forecasts; they reflect delivery to date. 'The first Climate Action Plan of this government was delivered last month. Cross-departmental taskforces are in place. 'Governance arrangements have been strengthened, with the first meeting of the new Climate Action Programme Board held last week, involving senior officials from all the main sectors – including energy, transport and agriculture. 'Its remit is clear: to focus on accelerated delivery of the actions needed to close the emissions gap,' Minister O'Brien concluded.
Irish Examiner
12-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Limited port space challenges plans for wind energy
The chief executive of industry representative body WindEurope, Giles Dickenson, recently said Europe's ports 'are not ready for the build-out of offshore wind Europe wants'. "That's deeply worrying. Because you can't do offshore wind without ports. If the ports aren't ready, then all the other huge efforts and investments that are being made across the offshore wind value chain are potentially wasted.'' Mr Dickenson says Europe needs to invest €8.5bn in port infrastructure in the next five, years, and this is very applicable to ports do not seem to be ready, and we do not have enough capacity to cater for the projects confirmed. Ireland has committed to delivering 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030, but is this achievable? Ireland is making progress on fixed offshore, with 4.4 GWs of fixed offshore wind farms proceeding through the planning process following the ORESS (offshore wind renewable electricity auction) auction of 2023, with more expected this year. However, a blind spot for Ireland is its sea ports – we do not have enough ports at the right size, in the right place, to meet requirements. The need for capacity and space at Ireland's ports is pivotal to realising our goals for offshore renewable energy (ORE). DCU have analysed this in the Research Ireland Programme called NexSys. There are three categories of ports required to satisfy the needs of offshore windfarm implementation in Ireland: Operations and Maintenance (O&M) ports, Foundation Marshalling ports, and Installation Marshalling ports. With regards O&M ports, Ireland would seem to be well served. Foundation Marshalling ports effectively manage the staging and installation of the offshore fixed bottom wind turbines foundations. The DCU study shows that many monopile steel foundations get shipped in bulk from Asia. The size and draft (-12m) of these ships limit where they could be offloaded – Rosslare would have a challenge. Foundations can also be sourced in Europe where shipments volumes can be lower, but cost may be an issue. Installation Marshalling ports provide a consolidation hub for fixed windfarms, where turbine towers, nacelles (a type of housing unit for essential equipment) and blades can be offloaded, stored, partially assembled before they are deployed at sea. A harbour draft of up to -10m as well as reinforced laydown area, and quay perspective, are a necessity. Research shows that co-locating the foundation load-out process and installation process for turbines, blades, etc, is not seen as best practice. The laydown area is a critical component in a port's ability to support the rollout. Rosslare has 21 hectares of laydown while Cork has 23ha. To put Ireland's total laydown area of 44ha in perspective: Hull in the UK has 61ha; Esbjerg (Denmark) 170ha, Cuxhaven (Germany) 152ha; Eemshaven (Netherlands) has 46ha of space for offshore work. Many sources say that 'a single 1 GW windfarm project with 12-14 MW turbines would occupy 22ha of a port for two years during the construction period'. Cork has commenced the extension of its pier but is yet to apply for planning for reclamation work. Rosslare is waiting to progress its planning application to deliver its quays and laydown area. These two ports are the only ports in the State. Belfast has more than 30GW of UK and Irish projects close to it, already making it an in-demand port. If Ireland is limited to just 44 Ha of laydown space from Cork and Rosslare, we will only be able to install about 0.5GW per annum and this could delay achieving 5GW of installed offshore wind energy by eight years, to 2038. What can be done? Port options in Ireland are limited due to the geophysical aspects of our ports, the physical size of the equipment, and the limitations in our port infrastructure and offshore wind energy port strategy, but there are solutions. Bantry, Shannon Foynes, and possibly Bremore offer solutions as Foundation Marshalling ports. Bantry and Shannon Foynes need development to support floating wind anyway, so why not invest earlier? The upcoming ports policy from the Dept of Transport is a key document as to whether the barrier of infrastructural investment by government has been changed. Non-Irish options are open to any developer if they source the foundations from European sources like Holland or Spain, potentially feeding a site directly using barges. Neither are ideal. If foundations are procured from the Far East, these items will be shipped in bulk to a feeder port, preferably in Ireland. Using Belfast, Scotland, or another UK port could offer solutions, but these are jobs lost to the State. It's a far cry from the Dept of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's Power Prosperity strategy document which spoke of building ''a successful, vibrant, and impactful new offshore sector, and to ensure the sector creates value for the people of Ireland'. James Carton is assistant professor in sustainable energy in Dublin City University. Bill Duggan is a research assistant at DCU.
The Journal
22-04-2025
- Business
- The Journal
Ireland's plans to become the 'Saudi Arabia of offshore wind' were dealt a major blow last week
Paul O'Donoghue IRELAND'S PLANS TO develop its offshore wind industry are at a tipping point. The country has ambitious plans to build huge projects around the coast. The plan is that these offshore wind farms would help meet Ireland's electricity needs, providing a sustainable form of energy as we transition away from polluting fossil fuels. In fact, Ireland plans to build so many of these offshore wind farms that not only would they meet the state's electricity needs, but they would ideally generate surplus energy, meaning we could export electricity to mainland Europe. They are seen as a long-term, clean source of power which would increase Ireland's energy security while potentially making the nation richer. On paper, this all sounds amazing – and many have claimed that the plan gives Ireland the potential to become the 'Saudi Arabia of offshore wind'. But this vision received a major blow last week with the scrapping of the planned Sceirde Rocks development, which would have seen up to 30 turbines built off the coast of Galway. A planning application for the project was submitted in January. But last week, the company behind the plans announced that it wouldn't go ahead with the project. The Currency reported that this was due to the developers realising that the site would have been vulnerable to extreme weather, including waves of up to 23 metres. Apparently, the issue was first realised during strong storms over the winter. The decision was a serious blow to Ireland's vision of developing its offshore sector: although the State had planned to have 5 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy operating by 2030, that is no longer possible without the Sceirde Rocks project. It's often estimated that about 20 GW would meet all of Ireland's electricity needs – so having 5GW by 2030 would have been a big step in the right direction. To put this in practical terms, there are 1,000 megawatts (MW) in every GW, and 1 MW of offshore wind energy could meet the annual electricity demands of about 750 homes. Sceirde Rocks was a 450MW project – so 0.45GW – so would have produced enough energy for about 350,000 homes every year. By March, there were six offshore wind farms which had a reasonable chance of being completed by 2030. Sceirde Rocks was one of them. These six developments had a combined capacity of slightly under 4.3 GW; without Sceirde, that number will drop to around 3.8GW, almost a quarter of Ireland's 5GW target. Government inaction One of the reasons Ireland is lagging is the slow pace of government action on tackling climate change. Offshore wind is a relatively new technology involving a massive, long-term investment, and private companies tend to want to get state contracts before they build wind farms. This is where Ireland's 'ORESS' [Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme] comes in. Under the first version of this, called ORESS 1, private companies which were already developing their own project sites bid for government contracts. These contracts are extremely valuable, as they guarantee that the State will buy the electricity produced by an offshore wind farm at a certain price. That makes projects much more secure, as the developer knows they'll have a means to sell their electricity after investing massive amounts of time and money. Of the six developments mentioned earlier, four won contracts under ORESS 1- and Sceirde was one of them. The two projects which were unsuccessful in ORESS 1 still have to make sure they find someone who will buy the electricity produced by their wind farms. Although the developers of each have said they are confident of signing deals with large companies that want the power, these agreements have not yet materialised. Advertisement So the fact that one of the four ORESS 1 winners is no longer going ahead with its project is bad news, as it would have been hoped that they were a lock and could therefore contribute to Ireland's 2030 goals for wind power. One might ask that if one of these ORESS 1 projects is gone, why doesn't Ireland just start some new projects under an ORESS 2? That was the idea, but progress is slow. The government is planning an ORESS 2.1 auction, but it will be different compared to ORESS 1. To apply for ORESS 1 funding, developers had to earmark sites they had chosen to build wind farms on themselves. However, in ORESS 2.1 – and under all future ORESS auctions – the government will instead decide where new offshore wind farms get built. In theory, this is a good thing because it will allow the state to manage resources like the grid better, rather than rely on what private companies are doing. But to achieve this, the government needed to pass new, complicated legislation which it has been extremely slow to do. The plan was to hold the ORESS 2.1 auction in 2023; now, the hope is it will be ready by the middle of this year. Planning delays Because of how long Ireland's planning process takes, it will be impossible for an ORESS 2.1 winner to get a contract in 2025 and complete construction by 2030. At least six years would be needed, and even that's an optimistic timeline. So what does this mean for Ireland's 2030 targets? Ireland has the aim of generating 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Various sources have put the country on track to miss that target, such as an estimate published last August . Ireland's offshore projects were factored into those numbers – so the less offshore wind we produce, the further away we will be from meeting the generation targets. There are other 2030 goals that the offshore projects factor into. For example, Ireland is aiming to reduce its emissions by 51% by 2030 compared to 2018. As things stand, it's estimated that Ireland's actual emissions reductions will be in the region of 29% – again, below the target. The cancellation of the Sceirde Rocks will likely mean even lower emissions reductions, putting us even further away from our target. These targets are EU binding, which also means that missing them leaves us open to penalties . Those penalties have a level of uncertainty around them too, given that many EU member states will likely miss their climate targets – it's not clear if officials will pursue financial and legal action against all of them. But arguably, developing these renewable projects is something Ireland should do anyway. The energy price spikes of 2022 demonstrated the importance of having energy security. Ireland's offshore wind sector could, in large part, provide that. But Sceirde Rocks pulling out is a case of one of the most important projects falling at the first major hurdle. Big infrastructure projects face being tied up for years in long appeals and judicial reviews. Some of the offshore projects have already faced this challenge. The Sceirde Rocks failure bodes ill for both Ireland's ambition to overhaul its way of producing electricity, and for its multitude of 2030 goals. With only five potential windfarms now standing (three of which have secure routes to market), Ireland should look to make the planning process as quick and simple as possible. Delays and failures aren't factored into the plan – we can't afford any more. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. 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