Over the next decade, the Irish Sea coast will have wind farms extending from Dundalk Bay as far as Wexford with a “bit of a gap around the Kish bank lighthouse”, according to cartographer John Coleman of La Tene Maps.
Coleman’s company has mapped offshore renewable energy developments around the world, while it has also produced detailed maps for aquaculture, hydropower, mini fish species, oil and gas exploration, mines and quarries, marine research fleets, and even data centres.
Ireland would have been among three leading countries in Europe pioneering offshore renewable energy 20 years ago, but now it is “probably number 23”, he says.
Ireland and the Irish Sea offshore wind projects - over the next decade, the Irish Sea coast will have wind farms extending from Dundalk Bay as far as Wexford
The new State-led system of designated maritime area plans means there “isn’t going to be a spatial squeeze as such” in Irish waters, he says, but the south coast will be a challenge for the fishing industry.
However, he believes floating wind is “a long way off”, and he also questions whether we need as much of the ORE as has been targeted.
In an interview with Wavelengths, he notes that there are 200 consented solar farms which haven’t yet been built in Ireland.
“Only about 20 of them are under construction,”he says.
The cartographer, geographer, archaeologist and teacher heads a small team of German, Irish and Spanish staff working remotely for his company’s office in Shankill, Co. Dublin. Maps produced by the company 20 years ago are still being sold.
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