Action plan for offshore wind energy launched as first projects expect to get planning this year
Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) today launched its Offshore Wind Action Plan 2026, setting out the urgent steps needed to accelerate the delivery of offshore wind energy and achieve energy independence for Ireland.
The plan, launched before more than 400 delegates at the annual Offshore Wind Conference taking place today and tomorrow in the Clayton Burlington Hotel in Dublin, comes at a time of rising costs for households and businesses driven by continued reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Minister Darragh O’Brien TD will deliver the keynote address on Day One of the conference at 1.35pm and Minister Timmy Dooley TD will deliver the keynote address on Day Two at 9.30am.
Recent research from the ESRI confirms that Ireland’s electricity prices are the highest in Europe because of our dependence on imported gas. The report also pointed out that countries like Spain which, after the previous fossil fuel crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cut their dependence on gas the fastest saw prices fall quickest.
The action plan highlights significant progress over the last 12 months driven by the Taoiseach’s new Clearing House for Offshore Wind Energy and a successful auction for the new Tonn Nua offshore project on the south coast, with industry confident that the first planning decisions on east-coast offshore projects can be expected later this year.
However, while progress is clear, challenges remain and the plan identifies 18 actions for delivery over the next 12 months with key priorities including:
- An Coimisiún Pleanála must be supported to deliver on its commitment to offshore wind planning decision timelines – including getting the first decision out in September;
- The CRU, EirGrid and industry must finalise all grid agreements and specifications for the existing east-coast projects so they can connect to the grid;
- Clarity is needed on Ireland’s future offshore wind pipeline, which sites will be available to progress and when;
- The Government must publish the National Ports Policy and, where a strong and credible business case is made, facilitate State investment in ports so they can build Irish offshore wind farms.
- The Government should advance plans for coastal Green Energy Parks which use offshore wind energy to attract new industries and create jobs.
Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, said: “Irish families and businesses are living through their second global fossil fuel energy crisis in five years. As long as we choose to depend on energy imports, in an increasingly volatile and erratic fossil fuel market, we are vulnerable.
“And when the next crisis hits, pensioners will, again, worry about the price of heating oil. Transport, fishing and agricultural sectors will, again, face enormous pressures as diesel prices rise. Families will, again, sit at the kitchen table looking in disbelief at their electricity bill.
“Let’s make a different choice. We choose Irish energy independence. We choose to generate our own clean and affordable power from our own enormous offshore wind energy resources. We can transport this on our upgraded grid, we can store this using new technologies, like long-duration energy storage.
“We can invest in electrification and use our opportunity as holders of the EU Presidency later this year to prioritise the coming European Electrification Action Plan.”
Achieving this will require a concerted and joined-up effort right across the policy system to enable the first phase of projects to be built and energised in the early 2030s.
Noel Cunniffe continued: “Ireland is radically and permanently transforming our entire energy system from how we generate electricity, to how we move and store it, to how we use it.
“Achieving this cannot rest with one single department or group of policymakers, no matter how committed they might be.
“It requires sustained support across Government, EirGrid, the regulator and beyond to ensure that every available resource is aligned behind a single overriding objective: the energy independence of our country.”
