The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Irish Department of Transport have established an advisory cooperation to assess capacity, demand and financing strategies for the development of port infrastructure for offshore wind projects in Irish waters.
Signed by the Irish Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan, and EIB Vice President Ioannis Tsakiris, the advisory cooperation aims to evaluate the scale and nature of investment needed to upgrade Irish ports.
The initiative is said to unlock an estimated EUR 30 billion in investment in offshore wind projects in the country which plans to have 20 GW of capacity installed by 2040 and 37 GW by 2050.
The newly established cooperation will see experts from EIB and the Department of Transport working together to assess both the expected costs of the necessary port infrastructure upgrades to support the development, construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of offshore wind farms, and the most viable financing strategies to achieve these investments.
Under the agreement, EIB and the Department of Transport will also explore opportunities for balanced regional development and the complementary roles of different ports in supporting offshore wind farm construction.
The advisory initiative will also involve project-level advisory to five ports around the country that are expected to play a role in the deployment of offshore renewable energy projects. The lessons from the successful development of these ports are expected to act as exemplars for wider offshore renewable energy port infrastructure investment around Ireland, the Department of Transport said.
Ireland currently has one offshore wind farm in operation and 3.1 GW of offshore wind projects in development after the government selected four projects in the first offshore wind auction under the country’s Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (ORESS 1) last year. The projects are the 1,300 MW Codling Wind Park , the 824 MW Dublin Array , the 500 MW North Irish Sea Array (NISA) , and the 450 MW Sceirde Rocks .
The government is now working on organising Phase Two tenders, with the first round, ORESS 2.1, expected to launch this year.