Permission for more offshore windfarms expected in ‘short term’, says O'Brien

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

A planning decision to build more offshore wind farms in Ireland is expected in “the short term”, the Minister of the Environment Darragh O'Brien has said.

Ireland currently has only one operational offshore wind farm, off the Co Wicklow coast, which opened in 2005.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of EU environment and climate ministers at Dublin Castle, O’Brien said Ireland “needs” to get more built.

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Ireland has a target to increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources up to 80% in 2030; under the plan, five gigawatts must be connected to the grid by 2030.

O’Brien said the original plan was that offshore wind would be electrified by that date, but said when he took over his department 18 months ago he was “very honest with people”.

He said: “They’re still in the planning process, and effectively, we’d expect some decisions on those in the short term.

“My focus will be on getting them into construction, because that will be a game changer for our people, for our businesses, for energy security, and indeed for affordability.”

Defending Ireland’s record on renewable energy, O’Brien said Ireland is “the number one country in the European Union with integration of renewables into our grid”.

Onshore wind capacity has doubled in the last decade, he said, and the country has gone from generating two megawatts of solar power in 2015 to three gigawatts, or 3,000 megawatts of power, this year.

“That is, I think, by any stretch or any fair assessment, a very significant upgrade in renewables,” O’Brien said.

He was speaking alongside Jessika Roswall, who is the Swedish commissioner responsible for the environment.

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She and the other EU environment and climate ministers were in Dublin for two days of meetings which she described as “constructive and also, if I may say, also fun and very pleasant”.

Along with meetings, they were given a presentation by former president Mary Robinson and also taken on trips to Dublin’s Waste to Energy plant and the new greenway in Dublin Port.