Wind Energy Ireland is calling on the Irish Government to invest in the country’s ports to give industry the best chance of achieving the Climate Action Plan targets competitively.
A report titled “We can build them: Supporting Irish ports to build offshore wind farms”, produced for Wind Energy Ireland by Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions, includes an examination of how port infrastructure for offshore wind energy was funded elsewhere, within and outside the EU.
It also highlights the important role of State support in giving confidence to investors.
The report builds on the 2022 National Ports Study, which showed that Belfast is the only port on the island of Ireland that is currently fully equipped to serve as a construction base for offshore wind farms.
It is nearly three years since Wind Energy Ireland published, Harnessing Our Potential, which first highlighted the urgent need for support from the Irish Government for additional port infrastructure.
This is the third report produced by industry since then, repeatedly highlighting the issue, and proposing solutions backed up by years of experience in port and offshore renewable energy development.
The failure by Government to act means that offshore wind projects, due to compete in an auction next month, still have no idea which Irish ports – if any – will be available to construct the wind farms.
This uncertainty will push up prices so Irish electricity consumers could be paying more for their power for decades to come because of the lack of ports.
Paul Doherty, Executive Director of Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions, said: “It is common practice across Europe for the State to invest in port infrastructure when there is a clear social and economic case for it to do so.
“Support from the Irish Government would de-risk upfront investment and could plug any funding gaps. This support could be in the form of direct funding from the exchequer, a low-interest loan scheme or access to funding vehicles such as the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the European Investment Bank.
“In the case studies we identify in the report it is clear there is no State Aid issue here. The Irish Government can choose to do this or it can choose not to.”
Noel Cunniffe, CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, added: “We do not have a single port in the Irish Republic capable of being used to build an offshore wind farm and while Belfast Harbour is an outstanding facility, we cannot simultaneously build all of the offshore wind farms that we need from a single location.
“Without more ports we will either completely miss our 2030 targets or these wind farms will be built from ports outside of Ireland, losing an incredible economic opportunity.
“Instead of growing jobs in Wexford, Cork and Limerick, our wind farms will be creating employment in Great Britain and France.”
Among other proposals the report recommends bringing ports, the ORE industry and state agencies together as part of the Offshore Wind Delivery Task-force to identify solutions, including the possibility of designing an Irish Strategic Port Investment Model and updating the National Ports Policy to enable the State to invest in port infrastructure for offshore renewable energy.