Shannon Foynes Port Company (SFPC) is currently recruiting for the position of Business Development Executive.

Shannon Foynes is Ireland’s second largest port operation, currently handling in excess of 11 million tonnes per annum.

The Shannon Estuary is Ireland’s main deep-water facility with a channel depth of in excess of 32 meters and a handling capacity for large vessels up to 200,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt).

Supporting large-scale capital-intensive industry, it is the largest dry bulk port in Ireland. SFPC annually facilitates trade valued at €8.5bn supporting circa 3,700 jobs.

The company’s customer base extends across many sectors including the industrial, energy, agricultural, recyclable and renewable sectors to name some. Consequently, it facilitates a diverse trade mix in the dry bulk, liquid bulk and break-bulk categories.

Importantly, SFPC not only facilitates the movement of trade within its port estate and estuary but is developing as a large-scale distribution and industrial hub.

The company plans to develop and expand its existing customer base by providing new and/or improved customer offerings and services. To this end, it is necessary to build stronger relationships with the customer base and work with them to develop mutually beneficial solutions/services and offerings.

Reporting directly to the Head of Business Development, the Business Development Executive is a new role tasked with developing and managing the existing and future customer base for all ports under the remit of the company.

The role requires an individual with the desire and ability to network nationally and internationally, and in doing so identify potential opportunities for the Shannon Estuary which they will develop in conjunction with the Business Manager and team.

This is a role which requires well-developed business development and customer relationship management skills. Sector-specific experience is not essential.

Full details of the role, including how to apply, can be found via the SFPC website HERE.

Shannon Foynes Port Company is fully committed to a policy of equality of opportunity and treatment in its employment practices, and is committed to employing best practice in recruiting staff.

The ESB and Shannon Foynes Port have announced a funding collaboration for a €250k study at MaREI — the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at University College Cork (UCC) — in the latest step towards helping Ireland to deliver floating offshore wind (FLOW) projects in the future.

Starting this month, the focus of the research will be to examine the requirements and identify potential sites for wet storage, which is the temporary offshore storage of floating offshore wind turbines in suitable areas prior to installation.

This is a key requirement for facilitating floating offshore wind, which will be a fundamental technology in Ireland reaching its offshore renewable targets.

Research will take place over two phases. The first phase will consist of understanding the key conditions and constraints associated with the development and identification of suitable wet storage sites, while phase two will focus on the technical challenges of designing sites in terms of the optimum layout and mooring configuration.

The aim of the study is to identify and inform considerations for the future FLOW industry that are required at an economic, environmental, societal and policy level in Ireland and also, to set a benchmark for best international practice through close academic and industry collaboration.

Ronan O’Flynn, ESB programme director for Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint said: “We understand the importance that floating offshore wind projects are going to play in both Ireland achieving its ambitious renewable energy targets and ESB delivering on our commitment to reach net zero by 2040.

“Research such as this, carried out by our partners MaREI and supported by Shannon Foynes Port, will help the entire industry to better understand what is required for crucial wet storage facilities that will allow floating offshore wind projects to be delivered at scale.”

‘This project will be an important enabler for the emerging floating wind energy sector in Ireland’

Pat Keating, CEO at Shannon Foynes Port said: “Our partnership with the ESB on funding this research will help underpin understanding in the key area of wet storage, in which [the] Shannon Estuary will be a major provider of as we go about harvesting the unprecedented opportunity for not just our region and State arising from floating offshore wind.

“Because of the estuary’s existing deepwater ports at Foynes and Moneypoint, wet storage space and available land for large-scale industrial development, we are one of few locations in Europe that can manufacture floating turbines at the scale necessary for commercialisation.”

Dr Jimmy Murphy, funded investigator in MaREI and senior lecturer in the School of Engineering in UCC, said: “This project will be an important enabler for the emerging floating wind energy sector in Ireland and will allow strategic planning decisions to be made related to the efficient deployment of floating windfarms.

“MaREI has a track record of research and development in floating wind and welcomes this collaboration with ESB and Shannon Foynes Port to address the challenge of identifying potential wet storage locations and optimising design layout.”

Ireland’s offshore wind energy potential arising from our Atlantic seaboard winds is among Europe’s leading renewable energy opportunities, the partners suggest.

With a maritime area more than seven times the size of its landmass, ideal wind conditions and strategic location on the Atlantic Ocean's edge, floating offshore wind generation has the potential to deliver up to 30 gigawatts of energy by 2050 — six times more than current domestic electricity demand.

MaREI will provide the research expertise along with the various tools required for the study which is aligned with their core research principles. ESB and Shannon Foynes Port will provide funding support and industry knowledge for the study which is in line with ESB’s Net Zero by 2040 strategy and Shannon Foynes Port’s Vision 2041 masterplan.

A record €28million investment in jetty infrastructure and a port logistics park has been announced by Shannon Foynes Port Company today in a significant step in transitioning the Shannon Estuary into a major international renewable energy supply-chain hub.

The unprecedented investment, which is fully and co-funded by Shannon Foynes Port Company and the EU’s ‘Connecting Europe Facility, will include a significant expansion of quayside area through the joining and infilling of two existing jetties. This will deliver an additional 117m of jetty set down/storage area by linking the existing east and west jetties at the port, substantially boosting existing quayside set down space.

Also included in the investment programme is the development of one of the country’s largest logistics buildings in a significant boost to national bulk and unitized freight supply chain infrastructure. The 127,000 sq ft facility will be the key element in a new 38 hectares port logistics park that will have the potential for a future 400,000 sq ft of modern logistics warehousing over the coming decade and a half.

Planning permission and foreshore consents for the developments, which amount to the largest ever financial commitment in civil works by the port company, have been secured, with work already underway on the new jetty and associated set down area following construction procurement.

Work on the logistics park, which will become the largest building at the Tier 1 international port, will commence in Q3 of this year, with all works completed in the first half of 2024.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which is co-funding the project, is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. CEF investments fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone.

Shannon Foynes Port Company Chief Executive Pat Keating said: “This investment reflects the unprecedented opportunity for the Shannon Estuary and Shannon Foynes Port Company. It represents the next stage of implementation of our investment programme and, importantly, lays the foundation for further required scalable capacity investments to accommodate growth in both the offshore renewable sector and the transport sector. For example, our objective to be the supply chain facilitator for an Atlantic floating offshore wind energy hub and related hydrogen production will be transformational in terms of our climate action targets, our national economy and energy security.

“We have some of the most consistent winds in the world off the west coast, the technology now in place to harness those winds through floating offshore wind and, in the Shannon Estuary, the deep and sheltered waters necessary to build the floating devices before they are brought out into open ocean waters. The world’s leading players in this space want to invest here and leading nations, such as Germany, want the green hydrogen we can generate from this almost limitless renewable energy. But for all this to happen, we need to invest heavily in our infrastructure and the plans we are announcing today are significant step in that regard.”

Shannon Foynes Port Company’s Offshore Floating Wind Study conservatively estimates that up to €12bn in associated supply chain investment could be located on the Shannon Estuary by 2050, with an opportunity to create up to 30,000 jobs.

Speaking on the significant investment in logistics, John Carlton, Engineering and Port Services Manager at Shannon Foynes Port Company said, “Our new logistics park will be a game-changer for bulk and containerised goods in Ireland. There is unanimity around the need to counterbalance and build resilience in the national supply chain and, in keeping with the National Development Plan, a key facilitator of this is to promote regional development by optimising capacity outside the congested east coast. Developing modern logistics facilities at the deep-water port of Foynes provides new logistics solutions for the western half of the country, offering more efficient and sustainable market access for importers and exporters alike by reducing the ton per kilometre travelled.”

Shannon Foynes Port Company Chairman David McGarry added: “When we launched our Vision 2041 masterplan in 2013, it was seen as a hugely ambitious strategy, yet we have reached its growth targets. The record investment we are announcing today, which is our biggest single commitment yet, is the latest but a key element of that masterplan.”

#GalwayPort - Galway Port's ambitious expansion proposals are facing objections from Limerick - but a Galway TD has accused Shannon Foynes Port of trying to 'torpedo' his city's plans.

As reported on Afloat.ie earlier this year, the Galway Harbour Company lodged plans to significantly expand its existing footprint to compete for future shipping business, especially the new generation of cruise liners.

But according to the Galway Independent, that planning application resulted in a submission by the Shannon Foynes Port Company, which operates the west coast's only designated Tier One port.

The submission asserted the commercial aspects of Galway's proposals go against European and national ports policy, by failing "to recognise the hierarchical structure of ports at a national and international level."

But Galway West TD Brian Walsh has dismissed the Shannon Estuary port's complaints, hinting at sour grapes over Galway's "ambition".

The Dáil deputy, who was also a member of the committee that first pushed proposals for Galway Port's expansion, added that he “wouldn’t trust the [Shannon Foynes Port] company to assemble flat-pack furniture, let alone develop a state-of-the-art commercial port.”

The Galway Independent has much more on the story HERE.