Thomas Gould
Question:127. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the number of offshore renewable facilities delivered to date in 2023. [54844/23]
View answerTuesday, 12 December 2023
Questions (127)
Written answers
Under the Climate Action Plan 2023, Government has committed to generating 80% of our electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030, which includes achieving at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
To date, Ireland has one operating offshore wind farm, Arklow Bank Phase 1, which was commissioned in 2004. As major capital infrastructure projects, offshore wind farms internationally have typical lead times of approximately 10 years from design to commissioning stages.
In mid-2021, the Government launched the National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF), which is Ireland’s first comprehensive marine spatial planning framework.
The Maritime Area Planning (MAP) Act 2021 was enacted in December 2021, which established a new licensing and development management regime in the maritime area, administered by a new Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA), in conjunction with An Bord Pleanála, which is facilitating the development of offshore energy.
In 2022, the Maritime Area Consent (MAC) regime was established under the MAP Act 2021. Following a comprehensive assessment process, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications issued Maritime Area Consents (MACs) to seven offshore renewable energy projects in December 2021, which enabled these projects to begin their pre-planning application engagement with An Bord Pleanála and to participate in Ireland’s first offshore wind auction.
2023 was a highly successful year for offshore wind progress in Ireland, with our very first offshore wind auction (ORESS 1), which resulted in the procurement of over 3 GW of offshore wind capacity across four successful projects at a highly competitive average weighted price of €86.05/MWh. The two applicant projects that were unsuccessful in the auction, representing a further 1.2GW of capacity, retain a time-limited opportunity to seek an alternative route to market.
All six projects have both MACs and provisional grid offers and are actively engaged in the pre-application process with An Bord Pleanála. Under the conditions of the MACs awarded, all projects are required to submit formal planning applications by June 2024 at the latest. Subject to this process, all 6 projects are capable of delivering by the 2030 target date, accounting for 4.2 GW.
Our second offshore wind auction, ORESS 2.1, will open in 2024, which will award a further 0.9GW of capacity for delivery by 2030. An ‘indicative roadmap’ was published on 20 November outlining the steps on the critical path to this auction.