Ireland and seven other members of the North Seas Energy Cooperation (NSEC) have agreed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Britain on increased cooperation for the development of offshore renewable energy.
The agreement has been welcomed by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan, who had identified it as a key priority during Ireland’s co-presidency of the NSEC in 2022.
It may lead to increased cooperation between Britain and the eight current member states of the NSEC and the European Commission, “bolstering energy security into the future for Ireland, Europe and the UK”,” Mr Ryan’s department said.
The agreement was signed for Britain by Graham Stuart MP, Minister of State for Energy and Climate.
Last September, the eight NSEC countries agreed to a target of at least 260GW of offshore wind energy by 2050, which will represent more than 85% of the EU-wide ambition of reaching at least 300GW by 2050.
This new MoU “recognises the important role for offshore renewables in reaching climate and clean energy targets and the need to cooperate on accelerating their future deployment”, Mr Ryan’s department said.
“The cooperation agreement aims to facilitate the planning and development of specific offshore renewable projects, including offshore grids,”it said.
“I welcome today’s milestone agreement, which I and our Irish team have been determined to achieve under the Irish co-presidency of the NSEC, and which builds upon the momentum of the landmark meeting and agreement we reached in Dublin,” Mr Ryan said.
“When it comes to realising the potential of offshore wind, it is best that we work in unity, that we transcend borders, that we set agreed targets, and then cooperate to achieve them,” he said.
“Working as a united Europe, we can ensure that we always have energy somewhere. That can be from the enormous potential of our North Atlantic and North Seas when it’s windy, from the south when it is sunny or from the hydro-capacity of the Alps in the centre of the continent,” he said.
“Through this cooperation, and by sharing and ensuring that we are always producing energy somewhere, we can look forward with some certainty to reducing our reliance on imported and expensive fossil fuels, and to delivering secure and affordable homegrown energy for European households and businesses,” he added.
Signatories of the MoU were: Minister Eamon Ryan (Ireland); Commissioner Kadri Simson (European Commission); Minister Graham Stuart (United Kingdom); Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Belgium); Minister Lars Aagaard (Denmark); Director General Laurent Michel (France); State Secretary Sven Giegold (Germany); Minister Claude Turmes (Luxembourg); Minister Rob Jetten (Netherlands); and Minister Ebbe Busch (Sweden).