Displaying items by tag: Holland America Line's Prinsendam

21st July 2012

Three’s A Crowd as Liners Line-Up in Dublin

#TREESOME CRUISECALLS – This morning three cruiseships arrived into Dublin Bay and all within less than an hour. Currently the trio are berthed closely together in the centre of Dublin port, which this year expects to see around 90 such vessels visiting this season, writes Jehan Ashmore.

First to arrive was Holland America Line's Prinsendam (1988/37,983grt) from Liverpool, followed by Swan Hellenic's Minerva (1996/12,449grt) from Portsmouth and lastly Peter Deilmann's Deutschland (1998/22,496grt) from Douglas.

In 2011 around 200 large cruise vessels visited Irish shores carrying more than 308,000 passengers and crew. The cruise sector in fact has doubled in terms of visitors, in just over 7 years when 142 cruise ships called in 2004 bringing more than 146,000 passengers and crew.

Large ports such as Dublin, Cork and Belfast handled over 85% of the total cruiseship visitor numbers in 2011. Of these ports only Dublin saw an increase, leaving the others remaining relatively unchanged. However, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, the opening earlier this year of Titanic Belfast is attracting more cruise calls to Belfast.

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Offshore wind

ESB know the importance of offshore wind in tackling climate change and delivering net zero. Ireland has a unique capability given its prime location to take advantage of the potential of offshore wind. ESB are working hard to develop offshore wind projects for the benefit of everyone across society in Ireland and the UK. This includes ongoing engagement with marine users and local communities so ESB can deliver these significant projects.

Offshore wind will play a major role globally in our fight against climate change. It will help to replace energy generated by burning fossil fuels with that from a clean, safe and secure renewable energy source. Ireland’s geographic location on the exposed edge of the Atlantic presents us with a significant opportunity to generate electricity from wind – both offshore and onshore.

Power from onshore wind farms currently provide over one-third of Ireland’s electricity needs. But, whilst its marine area is many times the size of its landmass, Ireland’s offshore wind potential is only starting to be realised. ESB have a coastline stretching over 3,000km but only one operational offshore wind farm – Arklow Bank, with a capacity of 25 MW. In contrast, Belgium’s coastline is only 63km long, but it has already developed more than 2,000 MW of offshore wind. In Great Britain, with a coastline four times the length of ours, offshore wind generation now equates to over 440 Arklow Banks, with an installed capacity of 11,0000 MW as of late 2021.

The Irish Government's target to install 5,000 MW of offshore wind capacity in our maritime area by 2030 is set out in the Climate Action Plan 2021. It also has the objective to source 80% of Ireland’s electricity needs from renewables by the same year. In line with this, ESB is applying its professional and proven engineering expertise to the challenges set within the Climate Action Plan.

ESB are committed to playing a strong role in developing Ireland’s offshore wind potential for the benefit of the people of Ireland. This will be done in consultation with marine users and local communities, and with due care for the marine environment.