Reforms relating to offshore wind projects will lead to a "revolution" in renewable energy, according to the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The Marine Development Bill will make changes to the application assessment for offshore renewable projects.
Offshore wind farm
Photo: Menno Mulder
At present, fossil fuels provide around 50% of Ireland's electricity. State-owned energy company EirGrid said its plans are to produce 70% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2030.
The agency that runs the national grid said it the backup to those renewable sources will come from natural gas, adding that offshore wind will be produced in the Irish Sea at competitive prices.
The legislation would give An Bord Pleanála – an independent body that decides on planning appeals – primary responsibility for granting permission for offshore wind farms.
Public consultation is to begin in the next few weeks.
The legislation will involve a "single consent principle", according to the government source, in order to remove duplication in the present planning process.
Mr Varadkar said that his country had "fallen behind where we should be on offshore wind because our planning system, for offshore and foreshore, just doesn’t work”.
Despite having a lengthy, windswept coastline that is continually buffeted by the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland has been slow to adopt offshore wind and tidal power.
The Taoiseach said his government was set on delivering its Climate Action Plan so to reduce emissions, improve air quality and create new jobs in the renewable energy sector.
The 2019 review by the Climate Change Advisory Council found that the average Irish home emitted 58% more energy-related carbon that the EU average. It put this down to high reliance on fossil fuels, in particularly coal, peat and oil for heating. 20% of homes in Ireland are powered by solid fuel, which puts the country after Poland's 44% in terms of solid-fuel use across the bloc.
Varadkar says planning reform could help unlock Irish renewable potential.
“So it’s a new planning system, a little bit like the land planning system working with An Bord Pleanála and that will allow us to have what I believe will be a revolution in terms of offshore wind energy,” the said, adding: “And we need to do that. We’re going to get from 30% renewables now to 70% by 2030."
“That’s much harder than people might think because there’s rising energy demand, and rising demand for electricity and the more data centres we have, the more electric vehicles we have, the more people we have who heat their homes with electricity rather than oil or gas or solid fuels, the more electricity we’ll need. So we’re going to need a huge level of investment in wind energy and solar too, and we’re going to need to make sure that happens.”
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