The Departments of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and the Environment and Local Government and the Marine Institute have made submissions towards a Green Paper on sustainable energy which I will publish shortly. In addition, there is ongoing contact between the Department of Public Enterprise and the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources regarding the potential offshore renewable energy resource.
The Green Paper on sustainable energy will, among other things, establish minimum national targets for employing renewable energy based technologies, including wind, over the next decade. The report prepared by ESB International and ETSU on the total renewable energy resource in Ireland identified an abundance of wind energy opportunities. However, the targets for additional wind power in the Green Paper will be dictated by the technical and economic limits of the technology at this time.
The future penetration of renewable energy technologies will benefit from the national campaign to increase public awareness of the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy based technologies which is administered by the renewable energy information office of the Irish Energy Centre. However, local support for individual projects must be established on a case by case basis by individual developers.