Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 December 2025
51. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the impact the suitability of our waters will have on the development of offshore wind, and on reaching our climate targets; and if he will outline the recommendations of a report he recently received on the matter (details supplied). [72751/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn advance of the recent auction to procure 900 MW of ORE at the Tonn Nua site in the South Coast DMAP, my Department collected through procurement or from surveys, geophysical, geotechnical and metocean data to examine site conditions in support of the auction process.
The publication of these datasets contributed to the success of that auction by informing and de-risking the process for potential bidders, by evaluating the suitability of the site for ORE development and identifying potential challenges to that development.
Similar surveying work will take place at the Lí Bán site in 2026 and a surveying programme to 2030 is being developed by officials in my Department to conduct these works at other sites earmarked for ORE development.
The report which is referred to, the Offshore Wind Technical Resource Assessment, was published by my Department in May of this year and can be accessed on gov.ie. The Assessment provides practical, technical information to assist future ORE policy development. It provides an evidence base to inform the theoretical capacity potential for fixed and floating offshore wind in Ireland.
The Technical Assessment puts forward several recommendations regarding Ireland’s approach to offshore wind development, including on our policy approach to fixed and floating turbines, supply chain management and cross-border co-operation, which includes interconnection projects.
The Technical Assessment identified a potential to develop a further 3-18 gigawatts (GW) of fixed offshore wind energy, in addition to the 3.8 GW anticipated from the phase one projects and the approximately 4.5 GW expected to be developed in the South Coast DMAP areas. The sum total of these figures, at 26 GW, far outstrips our 2040 targets as well as foreseeable energy demand. Furthermore, the figure also does not include any floating wind, the potential for which is estimated by that same Technical Assessment at over 90 GW.
