Planning Minister Peter Burke has pledged to speed up permitting for key offshore wind site investigation licences.
Burke told the Wind Energy Ireland annual conference 2021 on Tuesday that officials are to “put aside (the) prioritisation framework” reserving the process solely for the so-called relevant projects, a batch of five wind farms placed in a fast-track regime in 2019.
Site investigation licences, which are required to carry out surveys and other development work for proposed offshore wind farms, will now be processed chronologically, the minister told delegates.
For the full inside track read today’s special reNEWS show daily from the first day of WEI 2021.
The edition also reports on how Eirgrid is working with the Irish government to put in place a new policy framework to deal with surging power demand and the need for more renewables.
The system operator’s chief executive Mark Foley told WEI 2021 the effort, which includes collaboration with energy regulator CRU, is focused on dealing with the uptick in demand from power- hungry data centres, which are due to come on stream in the coming years.
Meanwhile, WEI acting chief executive Noel Cunniffe, who has penned an op-ed in the daily, also revealed today the scale of the Irish pipeline, which is now almost 25GW of onshore and offshore wind.
The reNEWS edition also carries a Q&A with Codling Wind Park project director Arno Verbeek as well as a focus on repowering in Ireland.