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Displaying items by tag: missing

#Baltimore - RTÉ News reports that the body of student Barry Davis Ryan was recovered off the coast of West Cork yesterday evening (Friday 10 July) after a week-plus search operation.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, diving volunteers from all over Ireland had joined the recovery effort this week more than seven days after the tragedy that took the lives of Davis Ryan's girlfriend, Niamh O'Connor (20), and his father, 51-year-old Barry Ryan, when all three were washed out to sea from the shore near Baltimore on Tuesday 30 June.

Davis Ryan's remains were reportedly found in the last search window before poor weather would have halted efforts till next week.

Published in News Update

#Missing - Diving volunteers from across Ireland joined the effort to search for missing student Barry Davis Ryan off West Cork yesterday (Thursday 9 July), more than a week after the tragic death of his father and girlfriend.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, 51-year-old Penney's retail scion Barry Ryan and 20-year-old Niamh O'Connor were recovered off the coast near Baltimore on Tuesday evening 30 June, but died soon after.

Davis Ryan was last seen entering the water to rescue O'Connor, who had been swept into the sea while walking on rocks. His father then followed them into the water as they were both in difficulty, but all three were swept out to the Eastern Hole, as The Irish Times reports.

Despite poor weather conditions over the last week, the search has continued for Davis Ryan, with John Kearney of the West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue unit expecting as many as 200 dives by more than 100 volunteers to be conducted yesterday between 6am and 10pm, searching a rocky area some 23 metres deep, 300 metres long and almost a kilometre wide.

And 60 divers were expected to join the effort this morning (Friday 10 July) before forecast poor weather sweeps in later today. The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update
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#Missing - An Olympic sailor from the US who competed in the 49er class at London 2012 has gone missing in Florida's Biscayne Bay, as The Guardian reports.

Last night (Saturday 27 June) the US Coast Guard suspended its search for 30-year-old Trevor Moore, who competed with skipper Eric Stork in the same class as Irish Olympians Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern.

An inflatable dinghy containing Moore's belongings was found adrift at Dinner Key in Miami on Thursday evening (25 June), prompting a massive search operation over 510 square miles.

US Sailing Statement On The Disappearance of London 2012 Olympian Trevor Moore -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 28, 2015

The US Coast Guard (USCG) announced on Saturday, June 27 the suspension of the search for London 2012 US Olympic sailor Trevor Moore (Miami, Fla.). Moore, 30, was last seen on Thursday, June 25 on a small motorboat in Biscayne Bay off Miami. Coast Guard search and rescue teams covered over 510 square nautical miles of territory and completed more than 29 search patterns since initiating the operation. The USCG was assisted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, City of Miami Police Department, the National Park Service, Miami Dade County Fire Rescue, and dozens of local volunteers. The volunteer search is ongoing.

"We are deeply saddened by Trevor's disappearance on Biscayne Bay, and wish to extend our sympathies to the Moore family," said Josh Adams, Managing Director of US Olympic Sailing. "In his time as a Laser and 49er sailor, Trevor has performed at a high level and made major contributions to the US Olympic sailing effort. He was a member of the 2012 Olympic team and several past editions of the US Sailing Team Sperry, a teammate and friend to many. In addition to the US Coast Guard's highly professional search for Trevor on Biscayne Bay, an extensive volunteer effort was organized and led by sailors on all manner of craft, which is a testament to the impact Trevor has had on the sailing community. Our thoughts are with his fiancée Libby Patton and the entire Moore family."

After winning College Sailor of the Year honors for Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2007, Moore competed in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Trials in the Laser class, finishing 4th. Moore later teamed up with Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and won selection for London 2012 in the two-man 49er class. After competing at the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth and Portland, UK, Moore switched from the crew position in the 49er to skipper, and campaigned for Rio 2016. He retired from campaigning in the Summer of 2014, and has remained involved in Olympic sailing as a coach.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will lead the ongoing investigation into Moore's disappearance.

– end –

Published in News Update

#Missing - RNLI lifeboats from Bangor and Donaghadee joined the search early yesterday morning (Tuesday 19 May) for a passenger feared to have gone overboard from an Irish Sea ferry in Belfast Lough.

As BBC News reports, it's believed a man from Manchester went missing from the Stena Mersey overnight ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast.

Reports have it that he was last seen overnight as the ferry crossed the Irish Sea, and the search was divided between inner Belfast Lough and from the Copeland Islands into the sea long the ferry route.

Published in Ferry
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#Missing - The body of a man recovered from Dublin Bay this afternoon (Sunday 10 May) is believed to have been in the water for several weeks, and is thought to be the subject of a recent missing person's report, as The Irish Times reports.

A ferry passing south of Howth Head made the gruesome discovery and raised the alarm with the Irish Coast Guard, with Dun Laoghaire RNLI also sending a lifeboat to the scene near Burford Bank.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

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#RNLI - Portaferry RNLI's volunteer lifeboat crew were called out yesterday (Wednesday 29 April) to help in the search for a woman reported missing to police.

The RNLI lifeboat, an Inshore Atlantic 85, was launched at 5.05pm and the volunteer crew were on scene, just off Strangford village on the shores of Strangford Lough in Co Down, two minutes later to commence their search of the waters along the shoreline towards the northern end of the lough.

Weather conditions at the time had rain but with good visibility and a Force 4 westerly wind.

The multi-agency search included members of the PSNI, coastguard teams from both Portaferry and Bangor, and Rescue 116, the Irish Coast Guard helicopter dispatched from Dublin.

The volunteer RNLI crew searched Strangford Lough’s western coastline as far north as Salt Island before crossing to the eastern side and searching towards the southern end, through Ballyhenry Bay towards Portaferry and the stretch of water running between Portaferry and Strangford village known as The Narrows.

It was as the volunteer RNLI crew reached Portaferry that they received word to stand down as news came through that the missing woman had been found.

Speaking on behalf of Portaferry RNLI, lifeboat operations manager Brian Bailie said: "It is at times like this that all of the hard work and training our volunteers put in comes to fruition.

"Training with the other emergency and rescue services is essential for all concerned, as today certainly proves."

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#Missing - RTÉ News reports that a body was found yesterday morning (Sunday 19 April) in the search for a missing fisherman off the Clare coast.

The search and rescue operation began in the early hours of yesterday morning after four people working with tractors in the oyster beds at Poulnaserry Bay got into difficulty when the tide came in.

Three of the fishermen were rescued by a local boat. RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

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#Missing - The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of an Irish man on a Caribbean cruise "remain unclear", according to US coastguard chiefs.

The Irish Independent reports on 67-year-old Dominic William O'Carroll, who was reported missing on Monday 13 April after a crew member on Croisières de France's MV Horizon saw something fall overboard from the vessel that morning.

A search and rescue operation covering more than 1,000 square nautical miles of the coast off Puerto Rico has since been called off.

The Irish Independent has more on the story HERE.

Published in Cruise Liners

#Missing - The search continues for a missing man feared to have fallen into the sea from the Cliffs of Moher.

As the Irish Independent reports, the search entered its fourth day today, with Garda divers hampered by poor conditions underwater at the foot of the cliffs.

The alarm was raised on Sunday night, with gardaí subsequently finding a car belonging to the missing man parked not far from the famous tourist attraction in Co Clare.

Published in News Update
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#Offshore - They say you should never leave port on a Friday – and following his rescue after more than two months lost at sea, American sailor Louis Jordan will surely be ruing that decision!

As TheJournal.ie reports, the 36-year-old beat the odds when he was picked up by a container ship some 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina yesterday (Thursday 2 April).

It brought an end to a 66-day ordeal for Jordan, who had departed Bucksport in South Carolina on Friday 23 January on a fishing trip, but ran into trouble when rough weather disabled both his boat and his communications gear.

While his family prepared for the worst, Jordan survived in the open sea by drinking whatever rainwater he could collect and fish he could catch. TheJournal.ie has more on this remarkable story HERE.

Elsewhere, the people of Sakhalin on Russia's Pacific coast have been devastated by the loss of at least 56 sailors after the sinking of a Russian trawler in the Sea of Okhotsk.

According to the Guardian, questions have been raised about whether the owner and international crew of the Dalny Vostok, based at Russia's largest island, had been cutting corners in their hunt for a big catch.

Published in Offshore
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Page 7 of 13

Ireland's Offshore Renewable Energy

Because of Ireland's location at the Atlantic edge of the EU, it has more offshore energy potential than most other countries in Europe. The conditions are suitable for the development of the full range of current offshore renewable energy technologies.

Offshore Renewable Energy FAQs

Offshore renewable energy draws on the natural energy provided by wind, wave and tide to convert it into electricity for industry and domestic consumption.

Offshore wind is the most advanced technology, using fixed wind turbines in coastal areas, while floating wind is a developing technology more suited to deeper water. In 2018, offshore wind provided a tiny fraction of global electricity supply, but it is set to expand strongly in the coming decades into a USD 1 trillion business, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). It says that turbines are growing in size and in power capacity, which in turn is "delivering major performance and cost improvements for offshore wind farms".

The global offshore wind market grew nearly 30% per year between 2010 and 2018, according to the IEA, due to rapid technology improvements, It calculated that about 150 new offshore wind projects are in active development around the world. Europe in particular has fostered the technology's development, led by Britain, Germany and Denmark, but China added more capacity than any other country in 2018.

A report for the Irish Wind Energy Assocation (IWEA) by the Carbon Trust – a British government-backed limited company established to accelerate Britain's move to a low carbon economy - says there are currently 14 fixed-bottom wind energy projects, four floating wind projects and one project that has yet to choose a technology at some stage of development in Irish waters. Some of these projects are aiming to build before 2030 to contribute to the 5GW target set by the Irish government, and others are expected to build after 2030. These projects have to secure planning permission, obtain a grid connection and also be successful in a competitive auction in the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).

The electricity generated by each turbine is collected by an offshore electricity substation located within the wind farm. Seabed cables connect the offshore substation to an onshore substation on the coast. These cables transport the electricity to land from where it will be used to power homes, farms and businesses around Ireland. The offshore developer works with EirGrid, which operates the national grid, to identify how best to do this and where exactly on the grid the project should connect.

The new Marine Planning and Development Management Bill will create a new streamlined system for planning permission for activity or infrastructure in Irish waters or on the seabed, including offshore wind farms. It is due to be published before the end of 2020 and enacted in 2021.

There are a number of companies aiming to develop offshore wind energy off the Irish coast and some of the larger ones would be ESB, SSE Renewables, Energia, Statkraft and RWE.

There are a number of companies aiming to develop offshore wind energy off the Irish coast and some of the larger ones would be ESB, SSE Renewables, Energia, Statkraft and RWE. Is there scope for community involvement in offshore wind? The IWEA says that from the early stages of a project, the wind farm developer "should be engaging with the local community to inform them about the project, answer their questions and listen to their concerns". It says this provides the community with "the opportunity to work with the developer to help shape the final layout and design of the project". Listening to fishing industry concerns, and how fishermen may be affected by survey works, construction and eventual operation of a project is "of particular concern to developers", the IWEA says. It says there will also be a community benefit fund put in place for each project. It says the final details of this will be addressed in the design of the RESS (see below) for offshore wind but it has the potential to be "tens of millions of euro over the 15 years of the RESS contract". The Government is also considering the possibility that communities will be enabled to invest in offshore wind farms though there is "no clarity yet on how this would work", the IWEA says.

Based on current plans, it would amount to around 12 GW of offshore wind energy. However, the IWEA points out that is unlikely that all of the projects planned will be completed. The industry says there is even more significant potential for floating offshore wind off Ireland's west coast and the Programme for Government contains a commitment to develop a long-term plan for at least 30 GW of floating offshore wind in our deeper waters.

There are many different models of turbines. The larger a turbine, the more efficient it is in producing electricity at a good price. In choosing a turbine model the developer will be conscious of this ,but also has to be aware the impact of the turbine on the environment, marine life, biodiversity and visual impact. As a broad rule an offshore wind turbine will have a tip-height of between 165m and 215m tall. However, turbine technology is evolving at a rapid rate with larger more efficient turbines anticipated on the market in the coming years.

 

The Renewable Electricity Support Scheme is designed to support the development of renewable energy projects in Ireland. Under the scheme wind farms and solar farms compete against each other in an auction with the projects which offer power at the lowest price awarded contracts. These contracts provide them with a guaranteed price for their power for 15 years. If they obtain a better price for their electricity on the wholesale market they must return the difference to the consumer.

Yes. The first auction for offshore renewable energy projects is expected to take place in late 2021.

Cost is one difference, and technology is another. Floating wind farm technology is relatively new, but allows use of deeper water. Ireland's 50-metre contour line is the limit for traditional bottom-fixed wind farms, and it is also very close to population centres, which makes visibility of large turbines an issue - hence the attraction of floating structures Do offshore wind farms pose a navigational hazard to shipping? Inshore fishermen do have valid concerns. One of the first steps in identifying a site as a potential location for an offshore wind farm is to identify and assess the level of existing marine activity in the area and this particularly includes shipping. The National Marine Planning Framework aims to create, for the first time, a plan to balance the various kinds of offshore activity with the protection of the Irish marine environment. This is expected to be published before the end of 2020, and will set out clearly where is suitable for offshore renewable energy development and where it is not - due, for example, to shipping movements and safe navigation.

YEnvironmental organisations are concerned about the impact of turbines on bird populations, particularly migrating birds. A Danish scientific study published in 2019 found evidence that larger birds were tending to avoid turbine blades, but said it didn't have sufficient evidence for smaller birds – and cautioned that the cumulative effect of farms could still have an impact on bird movements. A full environmental impact assessment has to be carried out before a developer can apply for planning permission to develop an offshore wind farm. This would include desk-based studies as well as extensive surveys of the population and movements of birds and marine mammals, as well as fish and seabed habitats. If a potential environmental impact is identified the developer must, as part of the planning application, show how the project will be designed in such a way as to avoid the impact or to mitigate against it.

A typical 500 MW offshore wind farm would require an operations and maintenance base which would be on the nearby coast. Such a project would generally create between 80-100 fulltime jobs, according to the IWEA. There would also be a substantial increase to in-direct employment and associated socio-economic benefit to the surrounding area where the operation and maintenance hub is located.

The recent Carbon Trust report for the IWEA, entitled Harnessing our potential, identified significant skills shortages for offshore wind in Ireland across the areas of engineering financial services and logistics. The IWEA says that as Ireland is a relatively new entrant to the offshore wind market, there are "opportunities to develop and implement strategies to address the skills shortages for delivering offshore wind and for Ireland to be a net exporter of human capital and skills to the highly competitive global offshore wind supply chain". Offshore wind requires a diverse workforce with jobs in both transferable (for example from the oil and gas sector) and specialist disciplines across apprenticeships and higher education. IWEA have a training network called the Green Tech Skillnet that facilitates training and networking opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

It is expected that developing the 3.5 GW of offshore wind energy identified in the Government's Climate Action Plan would create around 2,500 jobs in construction and development and around 700 permanent operations and maintenance jobs. The Programme for Government published in 2020 has an enhanced target of 5 GW of offshore wind which would create even more employment. The industry says that in the initial stages, the development of offshore wind energy would create employment in conducting environmental surveys, community engagement and development applications for planning. As a site moves to construction, people with backgrounds in various types of engineering, marine construction and marine transport would be recruited. Once the site is up and running , a project requires a team of turbine technicians, engineers and administrators to ensure the wind farm is fully and properly maintained, as well as crew for the crew transfer vessels transporting workers from shore to the turbines.

The IEA says that today's offshore wind market "doesn't even come close to tapping the full potential – with high-quality resources available in most major markets". It estimates that offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420 000 Terawatt hours per year (TWh/yr) worldwide – as in more than 18 times the current global electricity demand. One Terawatt is 114 megawatts, and to put it in context, Scotland it has a population a little over 5 million and requires 25 TWh/yr of electrical energy.

Not as advanced as wind, with anchoring a big challenge – given that the most effective wave energy has to be in the most energetic locations, such as the Irish west coast. Britain, Ireland and Portugal are regarded as most advanced in developing wave energy technology. The prize is significant, the industry says, as there are forecasts that varying between 4000TWh/yr to 29500TWh/yr. Europe consumes around 3000TWh/year.

The industry has two main umbrella organisations – the Irish Wind Energy Association, which represents both onshore and offshore wind, and the Marine Renewables Industry Association, which focuses on all types of renewable in the marine environment.

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