The ESB says it has “not fully suspended” one of its Irish Sea joint venture offshore wind farms as it awaits “policy clarity” from the Government.
The State company was responding to reports that it is pausing the Clogherhead offshore wind farm, one of two offshore projects planned for the Irish Sea.
The 1 billion euro 500 MW Clogherhead wind farm is a joint venture between the ESB and a unit of Japanese renewable energy firm Jera Nex named Parkwind.
In a statement, the ESB said that “the Clogherhead offshore wind project has been developed over recent years by ESB and Parkwind, with significant progress in various aspects of the project, including site investigations, environmental assessments and community engagement”.
“The site investigation activities includes comprehensive offshore surveys with geophysical and MetOcean survey campaigns completed during 2022 and 2023. This data will inform site understanding and design activities for the Clogherhead site,”it said.
“There are no further surveys planned for Clogherhead while the project awaits further policy clarity from the government regarding the location of Designated Martine Area Plans (DMAPs). This is part of the government’s plan-led approach to the delivery of offshore wind in Ireland,”it said.
“ESB and Parkwind believe the Clogherhead site is optimally suited for the delivery of offshore wind in Ireland and continue to monitor any government announcements in relation to any possible east coast DMAPs which will allow for further development of the Clogherhead project,”it said.
The consortium is also behind the 375MW Oriel wind farm off the Louth coast, which did not make it to the State’s offshore renewable energy support scheme (RESS) last year.
Last month, the joint venture confirmed to the Irish Independent that it had a potential corporate buyer lined up for the electricity that Oriel would generate, and the newspaper said this may be a large energy user linked to data centres.