Climate change is one of the defining challenges of this generation. Its impact is evident in increasingly extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels, water shortages and disruption to biodiversity and ecosystems.
Offshore wind-generated electricity has a transformative role to play globally in mankind’s fight against this change and our transition to a zero-carbon economy by eliminating carbon and other harmful greenhouse gases emitted by the energy sector by replacing that generation with clean renewable electricity as opposed to through the burning of fossil fuels.
ESB – leading the development of offshore wind in Ireland
On 14th February, we launched our ambitious new strategy – Driven to make a Difference: Net Zero by 2040 – with the aim of putting in place the infrastructure and services to enable our customers and broader society to live more sustainably. This builds on our 2017 Brighter Future strategy, which set a clear direction for ESB to take action and exercise leadership in tackling climate change.
Dipping our toe
One of the objectives of our Brighter Future strategy was to “Produce, connect and deliver clean, secure and affordable energy”, with the intent of incorporating significantly more renewable generation into our portfolio. Our first step into the world of offshore wind development came in March 2018 when we acquired a 12.5% share of the 353MW Galloper Offshore Wind Farm[1], located off the coast of Suffolk.
We are now involved as partner in three other offshore wind development projects in UK waters, as well as seven others around the coast of Ireland, two in partnership with Parkwind[2] – Clogherhead[3] and Oriel[4] – and five others that are sole ESB projects
[1] http://www.galloperwindfarm.com/
[3] https://www.clogherheadwind.ie/
[4] https://www.orielwindfarm.ie/
The ESB projects are illustrated on the map above and consist of the following:
Further information on each site is available on ESB’s Renewable Energy homepage - ESB and Renewable Energy
Project status
Investigative Foreshore Licence Applications for the ESB projects were submitted in late 2020 and early 2021 to facilitate the commencement of site investigation works in the form of geophysical, geotechnical, metocean and other environmental surveys. To date, two of these have been advertised for public consultation. The Sea Stacks consultation closed at the end of January 2022 and the Helvick Head consultation closed at the end of March. It is anticipated that the consultations for the other three projects will take place over the coming months – please keep an eye on the project webpages for updates.
We have recently launched a Virtual Consultation Room for our Moneypoint project, which can be accessed at the following webpage: https://www.moneypointoffshorewind.ie/Public-Consultation.html The room will provide viewers with up-to-date information on the project and offers an opportunity for viewers to ask questions or provide feedback, and will be open until mid-November 2022. We will host a webinar on the project in due course to give interested parties an opportunity to hear from the project team directly and also to offer an opportunity for questions to be asked by the public. If you would like to take part in the webinar, please leave your details in the feedback form in the consultation room. Otherwise, you can let us know by emailing [email protected].
Open and engaged approach to development
ESB appreciates that our proposed offshore wind sites have the potential to impact some maritime and fishing activities both during the development, planning and construction stages as well as during the operational and subsequent decommissioning phases of our projects. We are currently trying to identify what those impacts might be so that we can take all steps possible to minimise and mitigate against them, both within the wind turbine array area and also along the electricity export cable corridor(s).
During site investigation surveys, wind farm construction works and cable laying it is envisaged that some restrictions will be required to facilitate safe operation of the associated vessels and construction/installation teams. ESB will agree an approach for these activities with the relevant fishers and other marine users associated with any of our proposed projects in advance of any such works. ESB will never carry out works that may impact the maritime community without first engaging appropriately.
During the operation of any of our wind farms, persistence of largely normal, unhindered maritime activity is the aim for ESB. We appreciate, though, that this will be dependent on a number of factors, e.g. turbine array spacing, location of grid cables, whether or not the turbines are bottom-fixed or floating, etc. Gaining a proper understanding from marine users of how our project sites have been and are being used – both in terms of location and type of activity – is, therefore, a key input into the site design process. In that regard, we would very strongly encourage all interested parties to make contact with ESB so that we can both try to attain a better understanding of how we can pursue our interests mutually.
Contact details
ESB’s Stakeholder Manager on the five projects is Brian Hegarty. Brian can be contacted by emailing [email protected] or by calling +447980567980.
ESB’s Community Liaison Officer on the five projects is Michael McGlynn. Michael can be contacted by emailing [email protected] or by calling +353861363512.
Alternatively, if you have any queries relating to any specific site or project, you can contact the project team directly from the Contact Us section of the relevant project webpage.
