Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) chief executive Dr David Connolly has called for greater urgency from the government in the country and across the political system to support the development of offshore wind energy.
Ireland currently only has a single offshore wind farm but there is an estimated 4-5,000 MW of offshore wind energy ready to be developed off the country’s east coast.
Dr Connolly said: “Our industry is ready, willing and able to deliver the 3,500 MW of offshore wind energy by 2030 required in the Climate Action Plan. But there is uncertainty about whether the legislative and policy changes needed to ensure offshore wind is harnessed to power our homes, businesses and economy are happening fast enough."
“It may be more than ten years to 2030 but that’s a very short space of time to build an offshore wind industry from scratch and there is absolutely no time to waste,” he added.
Dr Connolly concluded: “The Government’s Climate Action Plan sets out a vision and a detailed set of actions for how offshore wind energy can be developed.
“But along with a vision we need a sense of urgency, not just from Government but from across the political system, to ensure targets set out in the plan are being met ahead of time.
“Minister Bruton’s clear commitment to tackling climate change needs to be matched with a determination to better the deadlines in the plan if we are to give ourselves a realistic chance of hitting our 2030 target to provide 70 per cent of our electricity from renewables,” he said.