Study completed on South East maritime area ahead of offshore wind auction
Plans for an offshore wind farm in the South East have been met with a wide range of responses.
A study has been successfully completed on the Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) along the South East coast.
Venterra Group, an offshore-wind energy services company, conducted a metocean characterisation study on the DMAP zone.
Metocean refers to the combined effect of both meteorology and oceanography within coastal and offshore engineering.
The study was commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), and is a significant contribution to the preparation for Ireland's forthcoming Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (ORESS) Tonn Nua Offshore Wind Auction.
The South Coast DMAP is a key factor in Ireland's Offshore Wind Energy (ORE) development. The DMAP has identified four maritime areas, including Tonn Nua, in the Celtic Sea within which proposed future ORE projects will be located.
The other areas are Lí Ban, Manannán and Danu off the south coasts of Waterford and Wexford.
Venterra's Chief Commercial and Growth Officer Paul Doherty said: "DECC's commissioning of the SC-DMAP Metocean Study off Ireland's south coast must be commended. By providing a 40-year hindcast dataset, validated site-specific models, and spatial maps of metocean conditions, the output of this work will dramatically reduce uncertainty in engineering specifications and financial modelling and enable prospective developers to submit more accurate, efficient and risk-optimised bids for this year's Tonn Nua auction and future auctions."
Doherty added: "The insights provided by the data will help streamline early development stages, accelerate the path to delivery for the Tonn Nua project, and exemplify best-practice data-driven risk mitigation.
"In the short term, it de-risks design choices by providing accurate metocean conditions for design parameters... ensuring better compliance with regulatory requirements, while longer-term benefits include lower lifecycle costs and a replicable framework for future plans and projects."
The Tonn Nua project refers to the offshore wind site 12km off the coast of Waterford. Tonn Nua, also known as Maritime Area A, has been identified to be developed by the winner of Ireland's second offshore wind auction, which will take place later this year.
The winning bidder for the Tonn Nua site will be required to provide a €140 million local benefit fund, €7 million per year of the wind farm's expected operation.
At the announcement for the auction in January 2025, disappointment was expressed over the proposed timeline of the development of Tonn Nua.
Former Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said at the time that he expected the winning wind farm would become operational by 2032.
Energia Renewables outlined their intention to bid in the auction to deliver the Tonn Nua windfarm site, alongside Vårgrønn (a Norwegian-Italian renewable energy joint venture between Plenitude and HiTech Vision), which is involved in the delivery of a series of offshore wind farms in Northern Europe.
Managing Director Peter Baillie said: "Energia and Vårgrønn have done the most work, we are the most informed bidders in this auction.
"We have a uniquely comprehensive understanding of the offshore environment off the southeast coast, and we can deliver the Tonn Nua wind farm faster than our competitors if successful in our bid."
The auction is expected to take place in June, with the prospective bidders to be announced in July.
