8th March 2024
Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney TD, has today launched Powering Prosperity – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy the first strategy of its kind for Ireland.
The strategy’s vision is to build a successful, vibrant, and impactful new offshore wind energy (OWE) sector by the end of this decade, and to ensure that sector creates significant value and up to 5,000 jobs in OWE and related industries for the people of Ireland. Its overarching objective is to maximise the industrial development opportunity arising from OWE production in Ireland, to create clean, green, renewable industries of the future.
The strategy has 40 actions for implementation in 2024 and 2025 and was developed in collaboration with other government departments and agencies. It is anchored on four core pillars:
- Offshore Wind Supply Chains: to build capacity and capability to develop the offshore wind farms that deliver on the 37GW target and give Ireland an edge in exporting products and services related to offshore wind energy (OWE);
- Research, Development, and Innovation: to give Ireland a competitive cutting edge in new technology and know-how for the sector;
- Balanced Regional Economic Development Opportunities: to drive growth from OWE in line with the Programme for Government priority of enabling all parts of Ireland to thrive so that Ireland as a whole can prosper; and
- Future Demand and End Uses for Offshore Renewable Energy: for example, to develop new Green Energy Industrial Parks, which can attract major foreign direct investment, establish new indigenous green businesses and serve as test beds for green technological innovation to power the Irish economy of the future.
In welcoming the strategy, Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, said:
“We need to work now to make sure we have the necessary infrastructure, supply chains and skills to really take advantage of Ireland’s offshore wind potential. I believe Ireland can and will become energy independent, bringing down our energy bills and reliance on other countries for fuel, while creating thousands of jobs across the country. The strategy being published today is one of a number of things we are doing across government to make sure that happens.”
Minister Coveney underlined the ambitious nature of the strategy, saying:
“Ireland’s marine territory is approximately 10 times the size of its land area, with some 450,000 square kilometres of this territory falling into our Exclusive Economic Zone, and Powering Prosperity will harness the economic potential that this represents. Ireland can make a real impact in the offshore renewable energy space - and there is a particular opportunity to establish Ireland as a world leader in floating offshore wind energy.
“The strategy presents an exciting vision for the future, with ambitious and concrete policy proposals. We will focus initially on tangible actions to be delivered in the immediate term, 2024 and 2025. We aim to make substantial progress on building capacity and capability in the offshore wind energy supply chain in Ireland and raising the international profile of our companies in that sector. We will open the door for the establishment of Green Energy Industrial Parks in Ireland’s regions. We will explore the potential for a floating offshore wind demonstrator site in Irish waters to assess the vast offshore renewable energy potential of the deep waters which make up most of our Exclusive Economic Zone.”
In his own welcome for the strategy, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, said:
“Ireland is already a global leader for installed onshore wind power capacity and for the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid. Powering Prosperity sets out how we can also become industry leaders in the deployment of offshore wind. It comes on the back of a number of significant steps taken already, our first Maritime Area Plans, our first successful offshore wind auction, and the establishment of the Maritime Area Regularity Authority. Over the next month, we will publish our first Draft Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for our South Coast and the Future Framework for Offshore Renewable Energy Policy Statement. This maps out how Ireland can create a flagship offshore renewable energy sector to achieve our climate and energy targets beyond 2030, while also bolstering the security and prosperity of the State.
‘‘Developing an offshore wind sector requires a whole-of-economy mobilisation, and this strategy sends a clear signal to international markets that Ireland is committed to maximising the benefits of our offshore wind resources. Crucially, the strategy identifies measures to build a capable and resilient supply chain and ensure that our strong research, development, and innovation ecosystem extends to the offshore wind sector. This will ensure that Ireland achieves the greatest economic impact possible arising from the routes to market for our abundant renewable energy, as well as assessing opportunities for strategic spatial development in our coastal areas and around our ports.’’
The Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy sets out a pathway to 2030 for Ireland to deliver on the vision of building a successful offshore wind energy sector and creating jobs for the people of Ireland and the objective of maximising the industrial development opportunity from offshore wind energy production in Ireland. It was developed following extensive stakeholder consultations across government and with industry.
The strategy was developed in parallel with and complements the roadmap set out in the Future Framework for Offshore Renewable Energy Policy Statement from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, we well as implementation of the Climate Action Plan 2024, which was approved by government in late 2023, subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment. It is part of a suite of policies ongoing across government to ensure offshore renewable energy projects are delivered in line with the target to deliver at least 37GW of ORE capacity in Ireland by 2050.
In conclusion, Minister Coveney added:
“Electricity demand in Ireland is expected to double by 2050. While offshore renewable energy is a nascent industry in Ireland, the potential benefits are multifaceted and cannot be overstated. Offshore renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, will add another layer to our economic future, provide energy security in uncertain times and drive the charge towards decarbonisation and ending our reliance on fossil fuels.”
Notes for Editor
Background
Ireland has one of the best offshore renewable energy resources in the world, providing a strong and consistent wind supply. To fully harness the vast potential for clean, renewable energy from our seas, a suite of policies across government have been, or are in the process of being developed, to ensure offshore renewable energy (ORE) projects are delivered in line with the target to deliver at least 37GW of ORE capacity by 2050. A key enabler of these targets is the work of the Offshore Wind Delivery Taskforce (OWDT) chaired by DECC. DETE, in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, leads on the work of Workstream 7 under the OWDT, which is focused on the supply chain, and also sits on a number of the other Workstreams to feed into their work and the overall work of the OWDT.
Ireland’s target to generate at least 37GW of ORE capacity by 2050 is expected to be achieved primarily from offshore wind energy (OWE), and fits within the 260GW target by 2050 for OWE of the North Seas Energy Cooperation, of which Ireland is a member, the 300GW target by 2050 of the European Union and a 657GW global target. These targets represent a significant economic development opportunity for Ireland in terms of developing an OWE industry capable of serving both domestic and international projects and maximising the benefits of future renewable energy use.
Key ambitions of Powering Prosperity – Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy
Ireland, by 2030, will aim to:
- Develop an innovative enterprise ecosystem, with indigenous and multinational companies, that will provide world-leading service to the offshore wind sector.
- Dramatically scale up the enterprise base that will service the offshore wind sectors in Ireland and around the world.
- Deliver up to 5,000 jobs in the offshore wind sector and related industries.
- Maximise opportunities for companies and investors to develop a vibrant and successful supply chain.
- Proactively assist enterprise, workers, and the RD&I ecosystem in availing of these opportunities through targeted funding and supports.
- Seek to establish an Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence and a new Floating Offshore Wind Demonstrator to support growth and innovation.
- Pursue strategic partnerships with like-minded countries in Europe and beyond.
- Work with stakeholders to develop world-class property solutions powered by renewable energy.
- In collaboration with other Departments, develop major industrial hubs around key deployment and O&M ports.
- Transform Ireland’s regional capability, and deliver opportunity for the people of Ireland, throughout Ireland, by developing industrial hubs and balanced regional economic growth.
This initial iteration of the strategy covering 2024 and 2025 includes 40 actions. Some of the key actions that will be advanced in this iteration include:
- The establishment of anOffshore Wind Centre of Excellence (OWCE) to enable offshore wind supply chain companies in Ireland, government agencies and further and higher education institutions to access, adopt and accelerate new technologies, for example, in floating offshore wind and digital, that solve real world challenges and collaborate to drive the sector’s future competitiveness.
- Exploring the concept of Green Energy Industrial Parks with the potential to deliver large scale, impactful property, utility and infrastructure solutions, capable of attracting larger scale investments, co-located with renewable energy generation, providing new industrial opportunities for appropriate geographical locations where complementary renewable energy can be sourced/developed, for example, offshore and onshore wind.
- Driving scale in the offshore wind supply chain through in-depth, one-to-one assistance to support transformational change in new and existing companies targeting scaled growth in the offshore wind supply chain both at home and in global markets.
- Building on international strategic partnerships with other countries to establish meaningful cooperation in supply chain development and knowledge transfer within the highly internationalised offshore wind industry.
ENDS
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